IDEA Mini-Grants Spotlights Fall 2023 by ASUWattsCollege

IDEA Mini-Grants Spotlights Fall 2023

Associate Dean

Program Coordinators

Instructional Designer

Student Worker

Administrative Support

Chandra Crudup

Cynthia Mackey

Trey Jenkins

Mary Mathis Burnett

Malia Wilson

Rachel Otero

The Office of Inclusive Design for Equity andAccess would like to thank current and former team members for their support and hard work in coordinating the mini-grants program.

Positionality Statement: Oppression can include harms towards individuals or groups based on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, gender, class, ability, national origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, and other positionalities people identify as. In the IDEAOffice, we recognize that our positionality in Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions comes with a high degree of power and responsibility.The IDEAOffice is composed of faculty, staff, and students of varying identities including Black, White, and Queer identities. We have done our best to review the outcomes of the IDEAMini-Grant process through multiple lenses in the Office and always welcome feedback as we continue to reflect on our own positionalities and the ways we benefit from, work alongside, and live amidst Whiteness.

Office of Inclusive Design for Equity & Access

wattsidea@asu.edu

5 ASU Charter

6 Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions

7 Office of Inclusive Design for Equity andAccess (IDEA)

8-9

IDEAOffice and Mini Grants

10-11

Fall 2021Awardees Introduction

12-13

ASU Watts College Women Faculty of Color Initiative (WFOCI)

14-15 Collective for Research Equity & Diversity (CRED)

16-17

Latin@s Unid@s Student Organization Latinx Mixer & Recruitment

18-19

Reinventing the

Manual

Table of Contents

SSW PhD Student

20-21

Yuma Mentorship Program

22-23

Spring 2022Awardees Introduction

24-25

ASUYouth Detention Program

26-27

Developing a Tucson Border Course

28-29

Diverse Perspectives on Justice Speaker Series (DPJSS)

30-31

Welfare Rights Collaboration Research Project

32-33

Lessons Learned, Takeaways, and Overarching

Themes

34-35

Additional Funding Resources atASU

Table of Contents Continued

ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.

ASU Charter

Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions Ensuring Inclusivity in Watts

(learn more publicservice.asu.edu/about/ensuring-inclusivity)

In a statement about ensuring inclusivity in Watts, Dean Lietz shared the following: Engaging in specific actions that are anti-racist remains essential to our ability to move forward, because adopting an anti-racist lens centers race when considering oppression; it acknowledges and seeks to combat our nation’s long history of violence and discrimination against Black, Indigenous, Latinx andAsian communities. Our commitment to approach our work on a daily basis from an anti-racist perspective must never cease. By saying we are advancing an anti-racist,AND anti-oppressive approach, it allows us to call out the need to ensure safety, respect, and inclusion of students, staff, and faculty as it relates to multiple identities that can lead to oppression. We are working to advance a truly welcoming and inclusive work and learning environment across the intersecting ways we define ourselves.

As we initiated the implementation of this commitment to an anti-racist and anti-oppressive approach, the most important early action was appointing an associate dean of Inclusive Design for Equity andAccess (IDEA). To support her work, a set of graduate students were appointed as IDEAscholars to work withAssociate Dean Chandra Crudup to advance initiatives that combat racism and oppression in the college. These student leaders not only expand our capacity, but they bring perspectives that have been essential to understanding how best to move forward.The creation of this role and office has allowed us to move from talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging to engaging in actionable steps that allow us to advance this approach.

The IDEAoffice also created a mini-grant program that invites faculty, staff, and students from across the college to submit proposals for a modest level of seed funding to support ground-up work to help create an inclusive work environment.This, coupled with the RaceTalk Circles initiative, has created space for our community to have important conversations about race, a topic that is often avoided.

To advance an anti-racist and anti-oppressive approach in our work and learning environments, we have to first be able to have open and honest conversations about race.All of these efforts have created not just space for conversation, but also ideas that are leading to direct actions that seek to dismantle systems of oppression and name and address micro-aggressions that occur in work or learning spaces.

“

To realizeASU's Charter and undo 400 years of racism in this country, we must all take active steps to dismantle systemic oppression and create inclusive environments in our own communities.”

– Cynthia Leitz, Ph.D., Dean of Watts College

IDEAOffice

We

IDEAOffice Commitments:

1. Ensuring Inclusive & Equitable Environments

We are committed to ensuring inclusive and equitable learning and working environments for and in collaboration with employees and students of the Watts community.

2.Attuning Towards Transformative Change

We are committed to supporting the ongoing learning process necessary to create continual attunement towards transformative change.

3. Designing Inclusive Practices

We are committed to embedding and designing inclusive practices in our everyday work and within the relationships we build.

4.Accountability to Communities

We are committed to holding each other accountable in the quest to build more vibrant, healthy, equitable, and accessible communities.

5. Countering Harmful Practices

We are committed to countering harmful dominant narratives, policies, and procedures with practices that benefit all.

6.Acknowledging Mistakes, Pledge to Repair

We are committed to acknowledging where we make mistakes, and we pledge to be transparent about steps towards repair.

7. Supporting Needs,Addressing Harm, Identifying Root Causes

We are committed to supporting the immediate needs of individuals or groups, addressing harmful behaviors, and identifying the root causes of racist and oppressive systems.

8. Celebrating Shared Experiences

We are committed to celebrating individual uniquenesses and shared experiences.

The IDEAOffice strives to advance the college's commitment to be anti-racist and anti-oppressive.

do this through inclusive practice, by embracing the evolving nature of this work to design and support initiatives with Watts’students, staff, faculty, and community partners

IDEAMini-Grants

The IDEAoffice supports the advancement of Watts College’s commitment to being an anti-racist (AR) and anti-oppressive (AOP) college and putting theASU Charter and Watts CollegeAspirations into action. One way this is achieved is through the Watts IDEAMini Grants, which provide modest seed funding to members/groups/ projects within the Watts community to support building a more inclusive, equitable, and accessible Watts community. In 2023, a total of x projects were submitted for review.These applications were reviewed by members of the IDEAOffice.Three projects were awarded funding, totalling $xxxx in funding. Guidelines in the call for proposals included projects that:

● Create, build, and/or provide space for networking, support, belonging, and mentorship for Watts community members (employees and/or students) that have a common identity

● Create space to deepen understanding of structural inequities by educating and building individual capacity for conversations about race, oppression, and intersecting identities

● Empower participants to share knowledge and resources while developing a safe space engage in advocacy work that leads to systemic change within their units, college, university, or community

● Infuse historical and contemporary content on race, oppression, inclusion, equity, and access into teaching/pedagogy

● Supports a focus on inclusion, equity and access in research projects, policy reform, mentorship programs, group activities, or events:

1) funding for speaker honorariums

2) funding to support small research projects,

3) activity and event funds,

4) community networking/hosting of meetings or forums

Mini-Grant Spotlights: Fall 2023 Awardees

01** Indigenous LeadershipAcademy Kristen Talbert, Staff in Watts College 02* Institutionalizing Opportunity

Kaufman,

in the School of PublicAffairs 03* Seed Exchange MekaAllen, Faculty in School of Social Work *New initiative in Watts **Formerly established initiative in Watts

Three initiatives were awarded mini-grants

Joe

Staff

Indigenous LeadershipAcademy

Awardees: KristenTalbert

Award: $

“Each cohort member has a project idea in mind for their community, we just ask that it benefits natives in some capacity.And so, you know, we've had 66 graduates of ILA.And that is 66 different ideas that benefit not just tribal communities, but urban communities.”

– K. Talbert

66 Total Graduates

Project Spotlight

Initiative Description

ILAworks to build leadership capacity for urban and tribal community members in the Southwest.

“The expanded ILAprogram will afford participants the opportunity to explore issues and find ways to make a positive difference for Indigenous people in urban and reservation communities within an IDEAlens.The concept of the proposed ILA“IDEA”” program is to integrate anti-racism and anti-oppression concepts within each of the ten-ILAmodule segments. In doing so, participants will be inspired and motivated in how to execute strategies and lead change in their communities in consideration of IDEAstrategies”

– K.Talbert

Initiative Impact

Cohort members benefited from guest speakers who have similar shared life experiences.

“We had Chris James, who is the Executive Director of the National Center forAmerican Indian enterprise development. He's from North Carolina…And he's from the rez. He worked for his tribal community for many years.Two people from our cohort were from his same rez.And one of them… is kind of where Chris James was previously. He works for his tribe, in education. He's trying to like expand, but he doesn't know how. And so…it was a really good conversation that we all got to witness between these two.And they had that mutual connection, of having guest speakers from that rez.” –

K.Talbert

What’s next?

ILAheld a strategic planning meeting in February of 2023. Several plans are being explored to expand programming.

“The first idea was to give presentations to our funder, APS, and their NativeAmerican Networking Organization (NANO), hoping that some members would apply to and become a part of the Indigenous Leadership Academy.The second idea was to start aTribal leaders academy or a non-profit leadership academy….Lastly, ILAcould align our funding proposals to Community Economic Development (CED). []as well as]...show how our work is creating a social impact.” –

K.Talbert

Institutionalizing Opportunity: Enhancing Pathways to Professional Development and Mentorship for Minoritized Students

Awardee: Joe Kaufman; Dr.Angel Luis Molina; Dr.Yushim Kim; Dr. Maribel Guerrero; Maryjo Douglas Zunk

Award: $ Grant awarded for honorarium and associated costs

Photo Caption:

“...we don't always know the experience of the students. We can identify problems and we can see challenges that we might see. But we don't live their experience. So it's very useful for us to hear from them. So that then we can say, oh, okay…I didn't know about that.And now I know this is an issue.And now you know, we can do something about it.”

1 Listening sessions

19 Participants