Sharing and building power: building inclusive and equitable communities

The topic discussed was how to create inclusive and equitable communities of place and interest.

The opening speaker was Sonya Ruparel from Turn2Us, who talked about her experience at Action Aid setting up a new international feminist network, with 70% of women from the global south; and, at Turn2 US, of building a new accountability framework and, most recently an alliance of grant-makers.

Some key points made by the speaker and participants were:

• Many existing communities are not inclusive or equitable and it’s important to recognise that ‘who we are’ may be the problem. Actively seeking to diversify and change who is involved to make sure that no group or vested interest dominates and to rectify power imbalances is part of the answer.

• Building inclusive and equitable communities takes time, because you have to identify a common problem and build a common cause, genuinely listening to and learning from each other.

• It’s important to be able to surface conflict, be able to feel comfortable with it and recognise that it’s ok to disagree.  But it is often hard, particularly for those with least power in a community, to do this.

• Techniques and clear ground rules to create equity of voices can be really valuable, as some voices will otherwise dominate and, in the context of organisational alliances, it is often those with most money and other resources who do.  Online meetings have helped to reduce these power imbalances, as they have an equalising effect.  Other techniques include: talking to each other during a walk, rather than holding a formal meeting, enforcing ‘equality of speaking’, and genuine shared decision-making eg through voting.

• Being accountable to each other is important.

• Division is being created through the culture wars, especially on trans issues, which is tearing people who might otherwise find common cause apart.