YWCA GREATER CHARLESTON
  • ELIMINATING RACISM | PROGRAMS
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    • RACIAL EQUITY & INCLUSION >
      • RACIAL EQUITY & INCLUSION | IMPACT
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      • WHAT WOMEN BRING | Ticket sales open Oct 13
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    • | EMPOWERING YOUTH |
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WE'RE ELIMINATING RACISM 
with our Racial Equity & Inclusion training

Held from 9 AM to 5 PM (Eastern time) on two consecutive weekdays, currently via Zoom, each of our Racial Equity & Inclusion (REI) trainings is led by Racial Equity Institute facilitators, nationally recognized for helping communities address institutional racism.

These workshops are designed to help local leaders proactively understand and address racism in their communities, workplaces, and personal lives. Each participant comes away with dramatically changed worldviews and tools to address racism in their own communities and lives. 

SIGN UP FOR OUR FEB 1 EXEC SESSION
SIGN UP FOR OUR MARCH 1 PHASE I SESSION

​NEW IN 2023!


Our full REI trainings now include the REI Debrief, a session one week after the workshops where together we'll discuss next steps for participants. We are also offering REI trainings tailored to organizations; please contact our deputy director, Tori Burke-Koskela, at tori@ywcagc.org for more information.

Stay tuned to this page for more REI offerings and other racial equity programs in 2023!

RACIAL EQUITY & INCLUSION | PHASE I

Our two-day REI Phase I training is designed to develop the capacity of participants to better understand racism in its institutional and structural forms. Moving away from a focus on personal bigotry and bias, this workshop presents a historical, cultural, and structural analysis of racism. 

Topics covered include our fish/lake/groundwater analysis of structural racism; understanding and controlling implicit bias; race, poverty, and place; markedness theory; institutional power arrangements and power brokers; importance of definitions of race and racism; history and legacy of race in American economic and policy development; and racial identity and its interaction with institutional culture.

With shared language and a clearer understanding of how institutions and systems are producing unjust and inequitable outcomes, participants should leave the training better equipped to begin to work for change.


RACIAL EQUITY & INCLUSION | PHASE II

We introduced the first REI Phase II workshop in March 2018, and continue to hold these next-level sessions. 
FIND OUT ABOUT PHASE II

Sign up now

Register online here.  (If you are seeking a scholarship, apply here! Please note there are only a limited number available, as these are dependent on sponsorships.)
REGISTER & PAY ONLINE

How you can help

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​If you own or lead an organization, send your board members, executives, staff, or volunteers to a Racial Equity & Inclusion session! Contact Shamara White.  

If you're an individual, attend one or more of our Racial Equity & Inclusion workshops — and invite your friends! 

Donate! A $500 tax-deductible donation will provide a scholarship for one individual to attend one of our Racial Equity & Inclusion workshops... and if desired, participate in an REI sub-group afterward. The option to split this into monthly installments is also available.
​
​Thank you to our Racial Equity Institute sponsors & partners


These local organizations have shown they stand against racism with us! We appreciate the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce for donating meeting space at its new Park Circle location at 4922 O'Hear Avenue, Suite 101, North Charleston 29405 for our REI workshops once we're able to go back to in-person workshops, and Apple Spice for then providing our REI workshop participants with nutritious, delicious lunches at a special rate. 

We're also seeking breakfast, coffee, and corporate sponsors. If you're interested in helping us eliminate racism in our region, please contact our deputy director, Tori Burke-Koskela.. Thank you!
The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce is a proud sponsor of YWCA Greater Charleston's Racial Equity Institute workshops
Glowfisch Hospitality Group is a proud sponsor of YWCA Greater Charleston's Racial Equity Institute workshops
Boeing South Carolina is a proud sponsor of YWCA Greater Charleston's Racial Equity Institute workshops

WHAT PHASE I PARTICIPANTS SAY

SEE THE IMPACT

​THE CATALYST WE NEEDED

"In order to move forward both personally and professionally, one has to understand how we got to where we are. We cannot make the needed systemic changes without a more thorough understanding of those needs. While I have known for quite some time that our history books are selective, I did not know to what extent. I [ now ] have a much better understanding of what was missing.

Going through Phase I was the catalyst we needed to move forward as a group to make systemic changes in our part of the criminal justice system."

| Scarlett Wilson
| Solicitor, 9th Judicial Circuit

EYE-OPENING


"The Racial Equity Institute program is an eye-opening experience about the reality of our need to reconcile with each other. 

"What impacted me the most about REI is that it did not force us to accept the reality of slavery's negative impact on our nation or its unfair practices toward black people. It gave us the opportunity to be honest and realize the importance of digging up and talking about the racist acts that still lay buried, as if they had never happened.

"If I knew someone who was on the fence about attending REI, I would tell them that if they want to play a part in making our nation a better place for them and their family, they need to attend."

| Rev. Anthony Thompson
| Author of Called to Forgive
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CHANGING OUR COMMUNITY INTERACTIONS

"As we protect life and property while building trust through partnerships, relationships, and fellowship, we deal with life issues such as poverty, homelessness, justice, unemployment, education, and crime. REI establishes a historical timeline and factual talking point for law enforcement, which provides the opportunity to build from this training by changing the spectrum of community interactions and crime with a more knowledge-based narrative.

"As public servants, our law enforcement officers have the ability every day to be a conduit in their approach to social justice and racial equity."

| Major Joyce Smith
| N Charleston Police Department

​See more...


2017-2020 Racial Equity Institute photos

We need YOU

Be part of the international movement for women, girls, and people of color... right here in the Charleston, SC region
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Choose the program you want to support

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Volunteer or become a member

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Sign up for YWCA.GC news

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ADDRESS

YWCA Greater Charleston
PO Box 80935
Charleston, SC 29416
M-F 9 AM to 5 PM

PHONE

843.722.1644 o
​843.722.4992 f

​

EMAIL

email ywca.gc

  • ELIMINATING RACISM | PROGRAMS
    • MLK CELEBRATION
    • RACIAL EQUITY & INCLUSION >
      • RACIAL EQUITY & INCLUSION | IMPACT
    • STAND AGAINST RACISM
  • EMPOWERING WOMEN | PROGRAMS
    • WHAT WOMEN BRING >
      • WHAT WOMEN BRING | Ticket sales open Oct 13
    • WE 360 | FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF COLOR
    • OWN THE ROOM | PUBLIC SPEAKING FOR WOMEN
    • WOMEN'S HEALTH
    • | EMPOWERING YOUTH |
    • SHESTRONG
    • Y GIRLS CODE
  • ABOUT US
    • SEE OUR MISSION
    • SEE OUR HISTORY
    • MEET OUR STAFF
    • MEET OUR BOARD
    • SEE OUR PARTNERS >
      • SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES | Our partners and other Charleston nonprofits
  • NEWS
    • SEE US IN THE NEWS
    • VIEW OUR E.NEWSLETTERS
    • BE IN THE KNOW: SUBSCRIBE HERE
  • SUPPORT US
    • BECOME A MEMBER
    • RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
    • VOLUNTEER WITH US
    • INVEST IN YWCA USA
  • DONATE