Urban League offers workshops on inclusion and empowerment
Building a more equitable and inclusive economy in Chattanooga requires an understanding of America’s racial and gender history and how to move forward in ways that allow all people to share in the region’s growth, according to the head of the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga.
“When you think about racial injustice and what causes it, a lot of times it is a lack of education or understanding,” Chattanooga Urban League President Candy Johnson said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Since becoming CEO of the Chattanooga Urban League two years ago, Johnson has helped establish the Center for Equity and Inclusive Leadership to engage and empower diverse community members for a shared understanding of racial, social and economic equity and inclusive leadership opportunities.
The center will conduct a virtual training session from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday in partnership with an alliance of trainers from the Racial Equity Institute. The seminar “Groundwater” will expose participants to the concepts of the creation of race in America, its history and its long-standing effects on society.
The foundational racial equity session is open to community members who register at bit.ly/ ChattUrbanLge.
Johnson said a second session is designed for Chattanooga area CEOs and executives and will be in-person on Feb. 24-25. The two-day session for executives will involve training, discussions and exercises on ways to better build an inclusive work culture.
“In our second year of offering these sessions with more than 200 Chattanooga residents participating already, we are excited to provide this opportunity to more community members and organizational leaders as a starting place for better understanding racial inequality from a historical perspective and an analysis of structural racism in the U.S. in order to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces and communities,” Johnson said.
In its most recent State of Black Chattanooga issued last year, the Urban League reported that the median family income for Black Chattanoogans is less than half that of their white counterparts in the city, and Black residents in the municipality also rank well behind white Chattanoogans in most measurements of health, education and wealth.
With a better understanding of how institutions, systems and culture are producing unjust and inequitable outcomes, Johnson said participants in the training programs offered by the Urban League are better equipped to work for change to include more people in Chattanooga’s growing economy.
The Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, which began in 1982, is an affiliate of the National Urban League, the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans and other underserved individuals to enter the economic and social mainstream.