CALL TO JOIN SHIFT LAB 2.0 COME JOIN THE SHIFT LAB!
About the Shift Lab A partnership between Edmonton Community Foundation and Skills Society Action Lab, the Edmonton Shift Lab is an action-oriented exploration of racism in our city. We are building on the great work done in Edmonton and approaching these challenges through a Social Innovation lab to steward an exploration that can provide us with insights and prototypes into how we can make change. We have completed one cycle of the lab (what we affectionately call Shift Lab 1.0) and are currently recruiting for people to join us for our next cycle -- Shift Lab 2.0! What is a Social Innovation lab? A Social Innovation lab draws on the strengths, empathy, creativity, and wisdom of a collective to explore new ways of making progress on a complex challenge. The lab will have several stages and will begin by making sense of the problem at hand by learning and listening to stories and reflections from the community. These insights help generate empathy and ideas for prototypes. These prototypes are tested and vetted by the community multiple times: even if an idea doesn’t work, they will incorporate the learning into a new prototype. When they find ideas that work, the Shift Lab will help them grow, but by the very same nature, these ideas can be messy, divergent and provocative to work through.
What is Shift Lab 2.0? The guiding question for Shift Lab 2.0 is this: How might we create better anti-racism interventions that acknowledge everyone’s humanity and create behaviour change? Three key components are in this question. Firstly, there are many anti-racism interventions in the world. Some of them are very effective. Some of them are less so. Can we build on what is already working and upgrade it? What can we learn from other sectors that might help? Secondly, racism is partly a process of dehumanization so beginning from a place of humanity is important. But using humanity as a starting place to engage with folks who don’t suffer the consequences of racism is also important: Daryl Davis, a black musician from the US who builds relationships with members of the KKK, talks about the importance of respecting the humanity of Klan members while challenging their ideas. Humanity, to different degrees and in different ways, is key. Finally, interventions have to be grounded in behaviour change, they can’t just be about awareness or empathy building. Both of these things are important, but awareness isn’t action.
To learn more about Social Innovation labs or Shift Lab 1.0, check out our report.
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