Identity & Intersectionality
Cultural identity is a part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception. Intersectionality is a way of understanding and analyzing the complexity of our identities and the human experience. Our identities, race, gender, sexuality, faith are not singular, rather they are mutually influencing ways of knowing and being. Intersectionality helps to better understand that social inequality and our social relationships are not determined by a single axis, but work collectively and influence each other. Coaching Imperative helps BIPOC populations navigate microaggressions, racial battle fatigue, and imposter syndrome by cultivating cultural wealth and utilizing emotional intelligence and principles of organizing.
Community Cultural Wealth
Coaching Imperative works with individuals and communities to foster awareness and understanding of cultural wealth. Community cultural wealth is as an array of knowledges, skills, abilities and relations possessed and used by Communities of Color to survive and resist racism and other forms of oppression. Cultural wealth consists of Linguistic/Vernacular Capital — languages, communication skills; Aspirational Capital — hopes and dreams; Familial Capital —social and personal human resources; Social Capital –peers and other social contacts; Resistance Capital — experiences in securing equal rights and justice; Navigational Capital – skills navigating social institutions.
Everyday Organizing & Power
Coaching Imperative believes organizing is the essential skill needed in our time. Organizing involves identifying, recruiting, and developing leadership by focusing on empowerment and the responsibility to act. Organizers work with people and communities to analyze problems, create deliberate strategize to solve the issues and enable people to gain a new understanding of their interests, resources, and capacities to use resources as a collective power. We help individuals and organizations new to organizing plan and execute organizing strategies to address the everyday needs of their community.
Be an Ally…No be an Accomplice
Being an ally involves building relationships with oppressed groups (i.e., people of color, women, LGTBQ, low income, etc.) and challenging dominant groups, especially those to which an ally belongs. To be an accomplice, one must be willing to stand alongside those who are being attacked or marginalized, even if that means experiencing personal or professional backlash. Coaching Imperative works to help allies as they move towards accomplice and learn to leverage their privilege and build an active praxis of action, and reflection on the world to create change.
