At Torch, we care deeply about creating more equitable and just workplaces. When we launched our first anti-racist leadership training, we were encouraged by the number of people who signed up and engaged in doing this necessary work. The energizing conversations we saw among participants and the sense of creating positive change was something we wanted to continue providing space for.
This is why we created our new Slack-based community, Justice at Work, which is open for CEOs, HR and L&D leaders to join. It’s a dedicated space for discussing social justice at work and sharing action steps, no matter the stage you’re at now.
Benefits of being a member include:
- Dedicated channels for discussion on specific topics (i.e. manager DEI training)
- Regular discussions with knowledgeable coaches and industry experts
- Networking with your peers at your chosen level of involvement
Torch’s co-founders, Cameron Yarbrough and Keegan Walden both feel deeply about the offering of this community. Read their statements below.
Cameron Yarbrough:
The most important thing I’ve learned about justice in the workplace is about understanding the audience. Before learning about anti-racism, I thought that resources should be focused on providing additional support for people from underrepresented groups. I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t right either.
The most important audience of the anti-racism movement is people in privilege, and particularly white people in privilege. This is because we live in a racial class system in America with white people at the top, and Black people at the bottom.
Undoing complacency is the key to resolving the class system starting in the workplace. It puts more responsibility on privileged groups to solve this problem and shifts the responsibility off of Black people and other minorities.
Justice at Work is about taking actions, like becoming an anti-racist, in support of social justice in the workplace. I’m excited and motivated to be part of the solution. Please join us!
Keegan Walden:
This community matters to me on a personal level. I’m a biracial man with one Black parent and one White parent, and I grew up on the east side of Buffalo, NY where I saw injustice take place regularly. I was lucky to be raised by a single mother who never lost her job, but many of the kids I grew up around and went to school with were not so lucky.
By the time I graduated from high school–a public magnet school you had to test into–many of my Black classmates had been expelled or “asked” to transfer to other less rigorous schools. They had to confront domestic and substance abuse, along with other downstream effects of the systemic racism that our country now seems willing to acknowledge on a new level.
The Justice at Work community is part of a broader effort by Torch to confront social injustice through anti-racism training followed by digital learning, coaching, and mentoring that helps leaders apply social justice strategies in an organizational context.
I’m excited for CEOs, HR and L&D leaders to join Torch’s Justice at Work slack community to discuss innovative approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion across their organizations. I invite you to join us today.
