Many of us are thinking about how to build on the anti-racism energy spurred by the murder of George Floyd. We are exploring ways to bring about lasting change in ourselves, others and in all American institutions. If you share these concerns, you are invited to….
Eradicating Racism: A Path Forward* is a series of three 90-minute Zoom sessions with the goal of assisting individuals to eradicate racism in their community through creating safe, healing learning environments to understand the complexity of racism and develop implementable strategies to address/repair the harm it has caused.
These sessions include pre-work (watching a video), brief presentations by experts, and ample time to explore these complex issues in small groups, designed to foster safe and open discussion. The learning sessions will be held from 7:00 – 8:30 pm via Zoom and are free of cost.
We ask participants to commit to all three sessions:
Session 1, Thursday, December 3rd: The Complexity of Systemic Racism
Session 2, Thursday, December 10th: The Notion of White Privilege
Session 3, Thursday, December 17th: The Personal Impact of Racism
If you are interested, please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eradicating-racism-a-path-forward-session-1-tickets-127196924425
*Eradicating Racism: A Path Forward has been designed by an informal working group of concerned community members including Sam Baumgarten, Paul Bracy, Erica Bronstein, Cleonie Mainvielle, and Richard Woy.
Paul Bracy
Paul S. Bracy, M.Ed.: Paul is a Human Relations educator, consultant. He has over 45 years of experience developing and delivering educational training programs to corporations, institutions, and governmental organizations both nationally and internationally. During his 21-year career in the United States Air Force, Paul developed and led the military’s race relations educational program for 12,000 military and civilian employees, assigned to Kadena AFB, in Okinawa Japan, in early 1970.
Upon his retirement from military service, in 1978, Paul continued his human relations career, through contracting with diversity and inclusion consulting firms, such as J. Howard & Associates, IBIS Consulting Group and his own firm, Collaborative Strategies Inc. until his retirement in 2009. Paul came out of retirement in 2012 because of his concerns on the lack of progress in eradicating racism and other forms of human oppression from the United States.
Erica Bronstein
Erica Bronstein, J.D., is a senior Fellow at the Center for Restorative Justice (CRJ) at Suffolk University and co-founder of the Institute for Restorative Initiatives. Since 2012, Erica has provided training and consultation on restorative justice circles and conferencing to dozens of schools and agencies in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Erica brings more than 20 years’ experience as an equity and organizational development specialist to her restorative justice practice, helping schools plan and implement successful change efforts. In addition to her work with schools, Erica is working with a coalition of groups to implement restorative practices in Connecticut juvenile detention facilities and has trained court mediators in New York and Massachusetts. Before joining CRJ, Erica was a partner at IBIS Consulting Group (a diversity and organizational development consulting firm), worked at the Massachusetts Trial Court on improving judicial responses to domestic violence, and ran a labor education program at UMass Dartmouth for workers and unions. She received her law degree from Northeastern University and her B.A. from Brown University.
Sam Baumgarten
Sam Baumgarten is professor emeritus of physical education and adjunct faculty at Bridgewater State University, having retired from full time teaching in May of 2011. For most of his career, Sam was an elementary school physical education teacher, but then spent 12 years teaching college students, focusing on teacher preparation in physical education. Currently, Sam teaches classes in folk dance and square/contra dance, on a part-time basis at BSU. He also runs his own community dance program, which meets every other Friday night—now in its ninth year.
Sam served on the board of the USA chapter of Dance and the Child International for nine years,including three years—2006-2009--asnationalChair. InJanuary2006,Sam, and co-author Terry Langton, published a textbook on elementary physical education entitled: Elementary Physical Education: Building A Solid Movement Foundation. (Published by Stipes, Champaign, IL.).
Most recently, Sam has been involved with a community action group called Bridgewater Citizens for Civility and Respect—BCCR. BCCR has organized standouts to protest hate crimes, presented forums on challenging topics, offered active bystander training, and worked with the Town of Bridgewater on the writing of proclamation declaring Bridgewater as a Town where civil discourse should be the norm. BCCR is now deeply involved in the anti-racism movement and is encouraging community members to sign an anti-racism pledge so as to make a commitment to join the movement.
Sam is also an avid runner, still competes in road races and senior track events, and conducts youth programs in track and field and cross country running.
Cleonie Mainvielle
Cleonie Mainvielle is the Owner and Founder of Inspired Outcome, a productivity and organizing business. Through Inspired Outcome, she works with female entrepreneurs and professionals seeking strategies to organize their time and ideas so that they can reclaim their freedom and have more time to pursue the most important, enjoyable, and inspiring goals.
As an immigrant from Jamaica, she migrated to New York and became the first in her family to earn a college degree. After receiving her master's, she was nominated and selected as a Presidential Management Fellows with the Federal Government, where she worked with communities and local governments to end and prevent homelessness throughout New England for 17 years. In November of 2018, she resigned to become a full-time entrepreneur.
In addition to running her business, she is the Founder and co-president of a grassroots organization called Diversity & Inclusion for Community Empowerment (DICE). D.I.C.E is committed to assisting predominantly White communities in demonstrating their respect, appreciation, and value for diversity and inclusion. She is also on the Board of Directors for Raising Multiracial Kids, Student Mentor for Binghamton University, and Intern Mentor for YearUp.
Cleonie earned her Bachelors’ in Psychology from Binghamton University and her master’s in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
Richard Woy
J. Richard Woy is a management consultant. He specializes in surveys, studies, and evaluation research and has consulted to over 100 organizations. Through JRW Associates, he has conducted numerous studies for both private and governmental organizations, working primarily in the areas of education, health care, and human services For the past few years much of his work has focused on substance use prevention and efforts to reduce fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses. He previously worked for the National Institute of Mental Health for almost a decade, much of that time directing studies and evaluations of the NIMH’s own national programs. For many years he has provided survey and research-related support to the Ibis Consulting Group, the Arredondo Advisory Group, and Empowerment Workshops, consultant organizations that provide workforce diversity consulting services to other organizations. He is a licensed psychologist and until recently continued to provide part-time clinical consulting services, specializing in children and adolescents. He received his B.A. from Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Rochester.