Lion’s Story* invites you to join us for our 2020 Racial Literacy Virtual Institute (RLVI). We define racial literacy as the ability to read, recast, and resolve racially stressful social interactions. This convening will help participants competently address diversity-related conflicts by establishing environments of mutual respect and trust, boosting ethical and thoughtful decision-making, and increasing worker performance and productivity. The more we practice the skills of racial literacy, the more competent we become in navigating stressful encounters across various personal and professional contexts.
RLVI participants gather for a 4-day virtual convening, led by Lion’s Story trainers and staff, to cultivate racial literacy by means of mindfulness-based storytelling, journaling and debating. We expect participants to become racially assertive enough to ethically speak and act using their occupational expertise during face-to-face racial (FTF) encounters without overreacting or under-reacting. This model applies culturally relevant behavioral stress management strategies and workable solutions for students, parents, teachers, and administrators.
This 20-hour training is designed for individuals, decision makers, administrators, educators, and clinicians. Participants are welcome to register as individuals or as a group of representatives from an organization, entity, and/or school.
For questions regarding institute, please email: institute@lionsstory.org
About Lion’s Story:
At Lion’s Story, we view the ability to cope with racial stress as a matter of skill, not character or morality. Most individuals and institutions fail to act on racial microaggressions and assaults because the stress of negotiating such conflicts is extremely high. Racial discourse is so stressful emotionally and intellectually that instead of facing conflict directly, most people perpetuate a set of avoidant coping strategies, which affect their thoughts, feelings, relationships, and systems.
*The work of Lion’s Story is grounded in thirty years of research conducted by Dr. Howard Stevenson at the University of Pennsylvania. To learn more about his work, you can watch the video from his TEDMED Talk.