Global Impact How We Move Forward Together

Community Agreements

Agreements are important because we will be sharing with one another and I want this to be a safe space.

• Respect - We may be coming from diverse backgrounds, and respect for differing opinions is of the utmost importance. Being able to discuss our differences with empathy will ensure we are respecting each other's different cultures and ways of being.
• Honesty - Speak from your personal experience. Don’t try to paraphrase what you think someone else may be going through or someone else's experience. Use “I statements”
• Speak in the first draft - You may not have figured out exactly what to say—don’t use that as a reason not to try.
• Stay present - Intellectually, emotionally, and physically
• Engage - If something resonates with you, write Key or use the emoji 🔑 in the chat
• Stretch - Create space and fill space (share and be open as it feels comfortable but leave space for others to step up and share too)

Agenda

1. My Story & North Star
2. Anti-racism work
3. Equity Work in Healthcare
4. How You Can Get Involved

Rebecca Irby, My North Star

This is a tribute to my father. He was 101st Airborne. His time in the army, specifically his deployment to Vietnam left him with a hurt soul. As an adult, I can look back and see the beauty and passion he had but also the enduring pain.

This is the last picture I have with him before he died of what I’ve come to call death by despair. War ravages the hearts and souls of all involved.

We MUST do a better job of helping our soldiers when they return home from war. It’s heartbreaking to see the number of depressed, substance-addicted, homeless veterans that we have here at home because they feel they have no place and no support.

Until as a society we move to a place where there is no more war, we have to find a better way to care for those who fight for our freedom and give us the ability to live our lives without seeing or having to deal with the atrocities of war.

I’m grateful for all those who have served and will serve to protect us and our way of life. Let's take a moment, reflect, and offer a thought for those who have and will serve. Then write or call your congressperson and tell them the office of veteran affairs needs funding! https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Thoughts are nice but action moves the needle!

When I was young, I always knew I wanted to have a global impact. I was a very odd child - I was very tapped into what was happening in the world. Even though I never 'saw' most things, they would come in my dreams. I would see people getting hurt and in pain and begging for help. For some reason, they were coming to me, and I knew I had to help them. These are some of my first memories. Pictures of me from childhood are of me protesting in front of a tree that was going to be cut down or out advocating for people and the environment even at five years old. I have always had the calling to help people. How to turn that urge into a career? That was not easy, but I'm here today to tell you my story, and hopefully, it'll help you on your journey.

The only compass would be my personal North Star, "to bring more peace and balance to the world".

Every decision can be judged by our Northstar - so for example. I had two job offers on the table. One pays really well and is in marketing. The company has a good social good policy, but they don’t make a big impact on peace and security. The other job is with an NPO, the pay is less, and only a contract position. The org works directly with marginalized communities and in that position, I would be doing direct action work.

This is where using your Northstar comes in! I would weigh each opportunity against my stated goal. Does this position help me get closer to my goal? Yes, great! It’s a viable option. No, then no, it’s not a viable option. However, in the above situation, I chose to NOT follow my Northstar and I took the marketing job. At the time I thought it was more prudent to make money and focus on my goals later.

I ended up having to leave that company because a lot of their business practices were not on the up and up and I did not want my name associated with their work. I made the decision I thought was right at the time and I learned, the hard way, it was not the right place for me. It was still a valuable lesson- possibly more valuable. Embrace the nuance and complexity of life...following your north star isn't easy!

Back to the drawing board! I had a number of experiences like this at the beginning of my career. It helped me understand and solidify this concept for myself and what I am now sharing with you.

I started my career working on a research project at Rutgers University focusing on social-emotional skills and how to incorporate them into the core curriculum in the USA. Through the twists and turns of the 2008 financial crisis, I ended up living and working in Japan. I created a cross-cultural communication course and textbook for the Japanese Ministry of Economics, Trade, and Industry, METI. The course was specifically for the aerospace industry and can be taken at Nagoya and Gifu Universities.

While in Japan I visited Hiroshima and was very taken aback when learning the full gravity of what the atomic bomb did to the Japanese people. I met a survivor and felt compelled to work with him, although I had no background in filmmaking I decided to make a documentary about his life story. From this documentary, I made many connections in the disarmament field and founded PEAC Institute with long-time anti-nuclear activist, Steve Leeper.

I'll share a short story about how we won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. There's a coalition and named ICAN. ICAN stands for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

This is a story about how young people came together and changed the world.

Everyone told us we were crazy, idealistic, and that what we were talking about was completely and utterly out of question and who were we, a bunch of young women who thought they could get a ban on nuclear weapons passed. NEVER.Not.Going.To.Happen! That's what we were told. This is the type of talk that is ALWAYS prevalent when anyone puts abolition on the table. The abolitionists who fought slavery were told the same thing. But I knew there were others who felt as passionately as I did, so instead of being discouraged, I went out looking for my people. I got support. I made my film (That Day), and I found ICAN.

ICAN was full of "young, naïve, idealistic" people just like me. And you guessed it - WE DID IT! We won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for.....the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted with 122 nations voting in favor to add nuclear weapons to the list of WMD and ban them just like landmines and chemical and biological weapons at the United Nations on July 7th, 2017.

Some images from the last 5 years of PEAC's Activities

This is only one example of something that can happen when we ban together and create an interconnected web around the world, pushing in the same direction, for the same cause!

With the success of our treaty, I began to turn my gaze on an issue which has always been close to my heart - Racial Equity.

Racism is

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Bias is

The Just Institue

New Detroit’s Just Institute is a comprehensive suite of certificated trainings and customized consulting. Trainings provide interactive pedagogical learning and personalized action plans to provide participants tools and strategies to create racially equitable policies and practices grounded in a deep understanding of racialized systems. Consulting begins with a proprietary diagnostic tool that analyzes organizational and behavioral conditions, including institutional and interpersonal challenges, and customizes interventions co-designed with the client.

Just Care | For The Healthcare Industry

Just Care Delivered to Henry Ford Health System

Address Racial Disparities in Healthcare

Explore the historical context of race, racism, and racial disparities in healthcare. While learning how intersecting social identities interact with healthcare systems and health outcomes.

Serving as A Leader of Change

Understand the necessity and value of addressing racism and other forms of oppression explicitly as root causes of health inequities. Assess our own biases using self-assessment tools and learn strategies for serving as leaders of change within your healthcare system.

Advancing Equity

Identify barriers, challenges, opportunities for advancing equity in one’s work both individually and organizationally

Reflections from participants after our training on what is needed to move forward

The health system must focus on revenue which prevents transformative change that will in any way hurt revenue. Senior leadership hesitancy to change the status quo if it means giving up power or income. Inability to acknowledge our own role as an employer in needing to improve our own employee's lives to improve health equity, because it would cost money and give more power to workers. Inability to acknowledge our own organization's and our founder's role that has been anti-social justice and equity historically. – Henry Ford Participant

We need more top-down leadership and ownership for health equity. We make very little investment in this area. – McLaren Participant

We have a leader that is head of this movement. We do really well with institutional curriculum for residents, but there is no training for other staff. - Henry Ford Participant

Receive this education, then take purposeful steps in achieving it. - McLaren Participant

All participants continued to think the workshop series was very relevant to their work and viewed the content of the workshop as mostly new on a 0-100 scale (Mean = 78.5, Range: 50-89).