Our anti-racism efforts have manifested in curriculum changes, instructor training, dialogues, community partnerships, and other ways. This section shares some highlights of those efforts.
Years ago, IMPACT Chicago removed “911” from the steps we teach at the end of all fights. Read more about that decision in our blog post “Get to Safety: Alternatives to 911.”
Workshop leaders and instructors strategized how to teach the differences between intuition and racial bias, and where to incorporate this into our curriculum. Read more here.
Suited instructors go through extensive training to safely and effectively play the role of assailants during scenarios. Part of this training includes discussion of the importance of never mimicking racial stereotypes or attempting to portray individuals outside of their own race.
IMPACT has always taken an approach of teaching “tools not rules,” meaning we provide self-defense tools for people to choose from without prescribing how they apply those tools. We know that race and ethnicity affect how self-defense is perceived and we trust people to be experts on their own lives and situations they may encounter.
IMPACT Chicago recognizes that trauma, including racialized trauma, is often carried in the bodies of BIPOC. Our instructor training and participant programming are developed with a sensitivity to trauma. Read more here.
IMPACT board members, instructors, and volunteers engaged in several dialogues on race and antiracism in the summer of 2020, which included break-out discussions on educational materials and reflection on our organization. One outcome was a working group that met several times to discuss IMPACT Chicago’s antiracism work, create this webpage, and set future goals for the organization.
As an organization, IMPACT Chicago governs itself based on a Culture of Empowerment.* Horizontal leadership, restraint from urgency, courageous feedback, multiple learning styles, and non-binary thinking, are some of the qualities that guide our governance and that we believe build an inclusive organization. (*IMPACT Chicago’s Culture of Empowerment - Lisa Amoroso, 2020)
To ensure our programs are accessible to as many people as possible across Chicago, we rotate the locations of our trainings. Additionally, in early 2018 we partnered with the Bronzeville Incubator to establish a recurring location for programming in a predominantly Black community.
Workshop leaders and instructors strategized how to teach the differences between intuition and racial bias, and where to incorporate this into our curriculum. Read more here.
Suited instructors go through extensive training to safely and effectively play the role of assailants during scenarios. Part of this training includes discussion of the importance of never mimicking racial stereotypes or attempting to portray individuals outside of their own race.
IMPACT has always taken an approach of teaching “tools not rules,” meaning we provide self-defense tools for people to choose from without prescribing how they apply those tools. We know that race and ethnicity affect how self-defense is perceived and we trust people to be experts on their own lives and situations they may encounter.
IMPACT Chicago recognizes that trauma, including racialized trauma, is often carried in the bodies of BIPOC. Our instructor training and participant programming are developed with a sensitivity to trauma. Read more here.
IMPACT board members, instructors, and volunteers engaged in several dialogues on race and antiracism in the summer of 2020, which included break-out discussions on educational materials and reflection on our organization. One outcome was a working group that met several times to discuss IMPACT Chicago’s antiracism work, create this webpage, and set future goals for the organization.
As an organization, IMPACT Chicago governs itself based on a Culture of Empowerment.* Horizontal leadership, restraint from urgency, courageous feedback, multiple learning styles, and non-binary thinking, are some of the qualities that guide our governance and that we believe build an inclusive organization. (*IMPACT Chicago’s Culture of Empowerment - Lisa Amoroso, 2020)
To ensure our programs are accessible to as many people as possible across Chicago, we rotate the locations of our trainings. Additionally, in early 2018 we partnered with the Bronzeville Incubator to establish a recurring location for programming in a predominantly Black community.