Undoing Racism Workshop

To make a contribution to the Barbara Joseph Memorial Undoing Racism ™ Internship Project, please click here.

Are You Challenged by How to Deal with Race Issues in Your Practice, Institution or in the Classroom?

We invite you to be part of our movement to advance institutional change for racial equity. Workshop participants will engage in a comprehensive exploration of how racism shapes American institutions, often without our conscious understanding that it is doing so. Applicants should be individuals in positions to take knowledge gained in the workshop back to their colleagues, institutions and wider communities. The goal is to foster local work groups that will continue the conversation and work toward institutional change.

These unique 2 1/2 day workshops are offered by The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, a national, multiracial, anti-racist network from New Orleans dedicated to ending racism and other forms of institutional oppression. Now in its 25th year, the Institute has provided training, consultation, and leadership development to more than 110,000 people in organizations nationally and internationally.

Graduates of the workshop say that the workshop helps them deal with both cultural competence and racial dynamics in the classroom and in practice.

The People's Institute analysis moves beyond a focus on the symptoms of racism to an understanding of what it is, where it comes from, how it functions, why it persists and how it can be undone. The workshop stresses learning from history, developing leadership, maintaining accountability to communities of color, creating networks, undoing internalized oppression, and understanding the role of organizational gatekeeping in perpetuating racism.

If you cannot register online, please click here to print out a registration form.

The following are testimonials from people who have taken the Undoing Racism Workshop:

“I have taken the training five times in two years and we pay for our board members to take it. This has changed how we understand our profession, human services, and the communities we serve.”

Robert Schachter, DSW, LMSW

Executive Director NASW-NYC

“The Undoing Racism Workshop changed my life and my view of what excellence in social work practice, administration, and education truly entails.”

Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R

Chief of Social Work Services

Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services

“The Undoing Racism Workshop presented by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond is a life changing experience.

Phyllis B. Frank, Director

VCS Community Change Project, Rockland County, NY

“Racism is a disease. The URW is the treatment!”

Deacon Ken Radcliffe

Coordinator The ISAIAH Project/

The Criminal “JUST US” Committee

“A Must for the Social Work Profession!”

Mimi Abramovitz, DSW,Prof. Social Policy,

Hunter College SW and The Graduate Center,

City University of New York ( CUNY)

“The Undoing Racism Workshop built my confidence by giving me a framework to help students learn that change must take place and that we all are the changemakers."

Jane H. Edwards, DSW

Assistant Dean Fordham University GSSS

"The Undoing Racism Workshop has had a tremendous impact on urging me to rethink every aspect of my various professional roles and my personal interactions.”

Andrew Hamid, PhD, ACSW

Senior Advisor United Nations

International Drug Prevention World Health Org.

Adjunct Professor of SW Columbia University

“The workshop was a deeply moving and intellectually stimulating experience that changed the way I think and the way I teach."

Paul Kurzman, Ph.D., ACSW

Prof/Former Acting Dean Hunter College SW

“…The Undoing Racism Workshop was transformational and moving. I am grateful to have had the opportunity which has enriched me, my work at JBFCS and in the Human Service Community. I plan to participate again.”

Alan B. Siskind, Ph. D., Ex. V.P. & CEO

Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services

Chair, Human Services Council, NYC

“...This structure has facilitated development in my racial identity and my ability to become a more effective anti-racist educator.”

Marion Riedel, PhD, LCSW

Asst Professor Columbia University

School of Social Work

“It was like getting corrective lenses; you are seeing things you’ve never seen before. The whole world looked very different. It had a profound impact on my life.”

Gail Golden, ED D., MSW

Clinical Director Volunteer Counseling Service Rockland County

"I wish I would have experienced this workshop 20 years ago."

Ralph Dickerson, Jr.

Former President United Way NYC

"As a Latino born and educated in this nation and with solid ties to the immigrant communities and communities of color the workshop provides crucial insight into the identification and recognition of racist behavior too often missed and overlooked by communities that have arrived in this nation during the last 30 years. The capacity to identify and recognize the history of the constructed racism clarifies the strategies needed to be utilized for all of us to be free. In addition, unless we recognize our commonalities with the communities of color, emphasized with ARA, we will continue to be divided."
Luis Quiros, MPA.,MSW
Board Member of NYCLU
Chairperson Westchester Community Program
Professor Fordham University
Touro College