Beyond Land Acknowledgement and Treaty Elms: Toward Right Relationships with Native Peoples.

This interactive workshop seeks to understand our unique relationship with this place we call Haverford College within the larger context of Settler Colonization in the Americas. Through the work of THRIVE we wish to share truths, open dialogues across differences and offer opportunities for healing. In addition to student speakers and participants, we are fortunate to have Paula Palmer, a Quaker peace worker and Dennis J. Coker, the Principal Chief of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware, to help facilitate this workshop.

White Anti-Racist Workshop Pilot

Two Bi-Co Education Program colleagues, Margot Schall, Program Coordinator and Kelly Zuckerman, Visiting Assistant Professor, have been planning workshops to support and deepen anti-racist work (awareness, commitments, practices) among white people in the Bi-Co.

In fall 2021, these workshops have been focused on anti-racism for teaching assistants and peer tutors, given their responsibilities and roles, and have been facilitated by community members who have previously participated in either the DEIT Leadership initiative, or the workshops facilitated by the Center for the Study of White American Culture. We hope that these workshops help to build the capacity of white-identifying people on campus for anti-racist understanding and practice, alongside parallel workshops for teaching assistants and peer tutors of color.

You Shared, We Listened, Now What?

Thanks to all those (faculty, staff and students) who came to the Listening Tours in spring 2021, and thank you for your patience as we developed next steps. With a series of observations based upon what you told us, our facilitator, Mitzi Short, will lead us as we determine “How Might We…create a togetherness community excelling at propelling excellence and wellbeing for every member. This community would strive to be non-elitist, inclusive of genders, race, religion, personal, physical or intellectual capacity.”

We look forward to developing design teams who can help us create a roadmap for the kind of inclusive community we envision, where we will define what thriving looks like, and also create success and accountability measures together.

EmpowerU: A College Life-Design and Resilience Training Program

This student-focused 6-week program will include 3 resilience-building lessons each week for a total of 18 lessons. Lessons are rooted in the core concepts of self-identity, motivation and habits, cognitive behavioral theory (cultivating your inner coach), emotional regulation, and relationships.

Listening Tours

President Wendy Raymond, Provost and Co-Chief Diversity Officer Linda Strong-Leek, Co-Chief Diversity Officer Raquel Esteves-Joyce and Dean Joyce Bylander conducted five listening tours during the first three weeks of March 2021: three for students, one for exempt staff, one for non-exempt staff, and one for faculty. When they are all completed, faculty, staff, and students will be invited to help prioritize the most common themes and ideas, and to develop action and accountability plans to tackle this work. Over the course of the semester, we will summarize and share what we are learning together.

We want to listen to understand how the Fall impacted you, from your various vantage points. We want to listen and then work together to create a path forward that makes Haverford and each one of us better. Some of the questions we asked are:

• How did you experience the events from the Fall?
• What are the issues you think we need to work on to become a truly more equitable and inclusive community?
• How can we move forward as a community