When Charleen Parkes approached me to facilitate a workshop at #Learnlight on ##Allyship, my immediate thoughts were: but ,of course! We all need an ally from time to time and we can all be allies to one another.
But what is an ally? An ally is a friend, an advocate, a champion, a supporter, a sponsor, a mentor.
An ally is an individual who speaks out and stands up for a person or group that is targeted and discriminated against.
An ally works to end oppression by supporting and advocating for people who are stigmatised or treated unfairly because of their differences.
When have you felt different? Like the only person in the room?
Have you ever felt like the only person in the room? Like you’re different, but your type of ‘different’ is not acknowledged and embraced? All the opposite, you’re targeted against and you are not heard?
I can remember very well...
Coming from a numerous family (I have 6 siblings), I definitely felt like the only person in the room when my school friends had 1 or 2 brothers and I have 5 and a sister.
My parents spoke a dialect which I realised helped me with my German later on, but back in my childhood I was looked down on because of that.
And my 2kg more on the scales compared to other girls in my class were loudly proclaimed by my PE teacher… I would have loved an ally back then…
In fact, we all need an ally and we can all be allies... Just as at Netflix...
So how do we create a culture of Allyship? What does it look like? Especially in virtual working environments? What can we do on a daily basis to be genuine allies?
In the workshop we address these and more questions like how to be a genuine ally rather than an opportunistic one...
Allyship - "A lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency and accountability with marginalised individuals and/or groups of people" Forbes
If you'd like more information about the Allyship workshop and how it can benefit you, your team or your organisation, feel free to reach out. I'd be more than happy to have a chat!
Feel free to check out my offering on Intercultural Coaching here: https://www.lucynabolin.com/copy-of-intercultural-coaching
or watch short preview below:
Looking for some feedback from the participants themselves? Join the LinkedInn conversation below and see what others say: