From Awareness to Action
TEP is committed to working with all communities to improve the understanding of the steps that need to be taken in order for any of us to achieve actual equity.
The current power models in the world around us are outdated and have not been helpful in creating equitable power as they claim, because they rely on keeping the most marginalized and impacted of community members worn out and doing all of the work.
Therefore in 2024, we need all hands on deck as TEP moves away from ‘asking for awareness’ into organizing more actions, which are aimed to improve things for all people, so that we may all have the opportunity to live our best lives, as our authentic selves. #wealldeservetothrive
HOW WE’RE DOING IT
Reclaiming our own narratives – Helping those who feel they have previously been silenced learn how to tell their stories in ways that amplify their experiences to create meaningful dialogues to move the power for our community; leading to change on the cultural level.
Educating others on the importance of centering Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC as a tactic for liberating all of us – We will never truly achieve equity until Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC (as the most marginalized of communities) are thriving; therefore equity is everyone’s responsibility.
TEP is here to be a partner in ensuring that learning is happening for anyone who is interested putting in the work.
By deepening our relationships with our supporters and volunteers we aim to create an inclusive community of active accomplices, who are trained and ready to protect themselves and others, regardless of which communities they actually belong to.
By building this power authentically, we aim to assist supporters and volunteers with the language and distributed organizing skills needed to center action takers, we hope to help them achieve real wins, that they define and lead on, especially in their own local communities.
What TEP is doing in 2024
- Identify the helpers: Recruit community members who are ready to become active accomplices for equity and invite them in
- Through participating in these trainings/educational sessions our community members will be able to:
- Reclaim their power through storytelling
- Learn how to tell their stories
- Learn what they can do with their stories once they’ve crafted them
- Learn how to use their stories to build meaningful relationships with decision makers
- Define their own wins
- Recruit and grow their own teams to help them realize these wins
- Find and grow support for their own initiatives, as well as the initiatives organized by TEP
- Reclaim their power through storytelling
- Through participating in these trainings/educational sessions our community members will be able to:
- Expand our participation and or create new coalitions to expand and support the intersectional work that is impacting our communities.
- Provide supporters and volunteers with the language, and guidance, including strategies and tactics in a way that is distributed so that they can own more of the required work themselves, so that we can help them achieve real wins especially in their local communities.
- Create events and communications including webinars, training plans, social media posts, blog posts, etc that are aimed at educating supporters, partners, and volunteers especially on how to achieve actual equity
Examples include:
- How to center Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC in your work
- Anti-racism trainings
- Supporters not Saviors
- Expand our network of available affirming resources to help meet the growing needs of our community, especially Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC
- Plug partners and support resources into our internal network to strengthen resources for the community; especially clients who may be seeking direct aid support through programs like inTRANSitions
- Ensure that our community has more clear paths to receive access to these resource
What we need from accomplices (or need them to know) in order to be successful:
- Authentic accomplices, who are committed to being anti-racist; not ‘white saviors’.
- Accomplices who will listen to and respect the leadership and direction of the most impacted members of our community, Disabled 2TIGE as the experts in the room.
- Accomplices should be here to support or lead on/model support, but not to lead in these spaces, as they are not equipped to solve the problems of the inequities this community is facing.
- A society that stops demanding the most marginalized community members to keep doing the heavy lifting.
- Meaning:
- Folks who are Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC deserve the space to rest and recharge by engaging in restorative and joyful organizing practices while it is those who have enjoyed the most privilege who need to move to the front of the line to do that lifting
- Ie- We don’t send Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC to Chick-Fil-H8 to fight with Chad and Karen, nor will we ask our community members to relive their traumas for likes and clicks. Though that is absolutely the work that our accomplices could and should be more engaged in.
- Folks who are Disabled 2TIGE-BIPOC deserve the space to rest and recharge by engaging in restorative and joyful organizing practices while it is those who have enjoyed the most privilege who need to move to the front of the line to do that lifting
- Meaning:
