68 - Provoking Change: A Social Justice Working Group (SJWG) Experience in Research Administration

Background: Our program was established to promote a culture of inclusion and awareness of social justice issues through training and resources. We are sharing our experiences from the past three years of creating an intentional space for open dialogue while building trust in the process.

Program

Description: Since being established, the SJWG moved ideas into action, building awareness through thoughtful training, collaborating with other institutions, and coordinating events that spotlight social justice concerns in research and health care disparities. Realizing social justice solutions require multi-tiered, dynamic responses, we began with the fundamentals -- training. Training is aimed at creating an environment of courtesy and respect, raising awareness on unconscious bias, pronouns training, and more. In addition to infrastructure training, the SJWG organizes educational series viewings, interactive activities on social justice topics, and invites esteemed faculty members to present on their social justice research. The feedback gathered from event participants has been the most powerful experience of all; evidence that intentional planning and execution of social justice initiatives make a difference.

Program

Assessment: We evaluate our programs in several ways, including an annual survey, a survey to provide feedback after each event, and direct feedback.

The feedback of this group has been overwhelmingly positive. We have had multiple staff members come up to us to express their great appreciation for this type of forum and the programming it presents to the staff. In addition, we have heard from colleagues about how impactful the training and events sessions have been in educating them about the daily struggles that their brown and black colleagues face.

Our events on average have 20-50 attendees, and participants are very engaged in the discussion.

Limitations: We are limited mostly to internal presenters who have the time and willingness to present, although we are engaging researchers from other institutions via Zoom.

We are limited in our evaluation of the program by the amount of people who respond to our surveys or provide us with individual feedback.

We are somewhat limited to virtual programs.

We do not have an operating budget, which limits the type of programing we can offer.

Discussion: This type of group would be beneficial and could be implemented at other institutions. We are a collection of staff who plan events, keep abreast of the most relevant topics in social justice for our audience, and evaluate feedback. This group educates by bringing awareness, enriches, empowers, and inspires staff to feel invested in social justice while supporting staff who feel the impact of injustice in their daily lives. This could enhance any institution positively and contribute towards actionable change one local organization at a time. This type of program can grow and connect across offices and amplify positive growth.