Racial Justice Community of Practice (Online) 2025
Racial Justice Community of Practice (Online) 2025
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How Do We Sustain Ourselves While Advancing Racial Justice?
Sustaining the work of racial justice can feel overwhelming, especially when facing resistance or isolation. Have you ever wondered how to stay grounded and effective in this work, or how to find the support you need to keep going?
Our FREE Racial Justice Community of Practice is here for you. This quarterly gathering is a space for connection, reflection, and action. Together, we’ll explore challenges, celebrate progress, and share strategies to advance racial justice in and through our organizations. Whether you’re just starting out or deeply experienced, this is your community to recharge, learn, and lead boldly.
In 2024, we expanded participation to welcome anyone engaged in advancing racial justice - not just alumni of our workshops. Join us in 2025 as we continue building a community of leaders driving meaningful change!
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What to Expect
In each session, we will dig into the “who” and “how” of leading for racial justice. We will use the document, Preparing Yourself to Serve, as a starting point for our discussions. Topics will include:
WHO: Sustaining Myself as a Leader in This Work
How am I staying grounded and centered? How can I prepare my heart and mind to lead for racial justice?
How does my identity matter as I lead for racial justice? What challenges am I facing as a leader? (includes racial affinity spaces)
What’s my orientation toward collaborative leadership? How does/doesn’t that align with the expectations of the people I’m leading and partnering with?
HOW: Collaborating to Advance Racial Justice
Making the case for change and building buy-in, especially in the current context
Engaging stakeholders and making decisions together
Designing spaces for planning
Designing spaces for learning
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Session Details
Register for all four sessions now, or register for individual sessions as the year unfolds. There is no fee to participate, but donations are encouraged.*
Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 2PM - 4PM ET
Wednesday, June 11, 2025, 2PM - 4PM ET
Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 2PM - 4PM ET
Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 2PM - 4PM ET
(11 AM - 1 PM PT | 12 PM - 2 PM MT | 1 PM - 3 PM CT)
Join our private LinkedIn group to stay connected and share resources between gatherings: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9240725/
Note: While we may distribute resources or tools shared in the sessions, due to the sensitive nature of the discussions, we will not record the sessions.
*Running a Community of Practice takes significant, often invisible labor—designing content, facilitating meaningful conversations, and coordinating logistics. Your donation helps sustain this work so these much-needed spaces can continue to thrive, especially in challenging moments. Together, we can advance racial justice and create lasting change.
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Facilitators
Cynthia Silva Parker (she/her)
Cynthia Silva Parker is a seasoned capacity builder with over 30 years of experience equipping leaders and organizations for social justice and racial equity. She thrives on helping people connect lived experiences to new ideas, build understanding, and reach meaningful agreements.
A Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change since 1998, Cynthia has delivered facilitation, training, and coaching across sectors and co-developed workshops like Advancing Racial Justice in Organizations and Fundamentals of Facilitation for Racial Justice Work.
Her previous roles include leading Boston Freedom Summer, the Ten Point Coalition’s youth development project, and serving as project administrator for the Algebra Project, a national education reform network.
Cynthia, a proud mother of three adult sons, holds degrees from Harvard-Radcliffe and Harvard’s Kennedy School. Don’t miss her talks: What Will It Take to End Racism? and Race Talk: Moving Beyond the Surface.
Amy Casso (she/her)
Amy Casso is a racial justice strategist and capacity builder with 25 years of experience advancing racial, gender, economic, immigrant, reproductive, and health justice in nonprofits, government, and foundations. Her work centers on fostering leadership, shifting power, and building capacity to drive transformative social change.
Amy has led significant efforts, including developing a Latinx strategy that helped defeat harmful ballot measures, passing landmark reproductive health legislation, and building cross-movement collaborations to shift power and policy in Oregon. She also provides technical support and training on racial, gender, and reproductive justice to organizations, campaigns, foundations, and government agencies.
Before joining IISC as a Senior Associate, Amy directed racial equity strategies for the City of San Antonio, led the “We are BRAVE” reproductive justice project, and co-founded Colectivo Flatlander, a grassroots training organization for immigrant rights organizers.
A proud dog mom and foodie, Amy holds an MPA from the University of Washington, a BA from the University of Oregon, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies. She was named a National Rockwood Leadership Fellow in 2017.