DEI Success Story: LWV of Greencastle (IN)

The LWV of Greencastle (IN) has been working on anti-racism ally programs that focus on raising awareness around white privilege, fostering conversations with diverse groups, and educating and inspiring members to become better allies.  

ACTION: Create programs that promote anti-racism and foster conversations within the League regarding allyship and conversing with diverse groups. 

The LWV of Greencastle has developed a program called Become a Better Ally: Daily Habits of an Anti-Racist. Leslie Hanson, former President of the Greencastle League, Amy Smith, Elizabeth Castelan, and Bryan Langdoc worked together to shepherd this program. Members of this League have been doing anti-racist work since the 1990s and, after the George Floyd murder, they decided it was time to really push League members to do better and take action as active allies, despite Greencastle’s predominantly white demographic.  

The League took the extra step to go above and beyond simply leading a training where people show up to think about racial issues when a tragedy happens; instead they decided to integrate anti-racism into their daily lives and use this program to become more comfortable and proficient in talking about race.  

The Become a Better Ally: Daily Habits of an Anti-Racist program is 4 weeks long and each week participants are given a list of resources, also called a Toolkit, to read, listen, or watch. These resources include a range of topics from implicit bias to tone policing to the history of policing. They were assigned the homework of spending at least 15 minutes a day doing this work in order to develop the daily habit of putting in the work of educating themselves about their biases and systematic biases. What made this program unique was their buddy component. Each participant at the end of the week was buddied up with a different participant to talk about the week’s resources over zoom. This helped participants remain accountable, get to know diverse populations, and understand diverse perspectives. Participants ranged from 14 years to 80 years old and there were 85 participants in the program. In addition, each Sunday the League offered a zoom gathering for individuals who wanted to talk in larger group settings.  

RECOMMENDATION: Integrate anti-racism ally programs into your league with an additional buddy component. 

The feedback from this program was extremely positive and, in developing the program, the League used some resources/ideas from justiceinjune.org which is a donation-based organization. Former President Hanson states, “the work doesn’t stop at the program… we define the work for the participants as educating themselves, educating others, and taking action.”  

By providing participants with toolkits, instructing them on allyship, and promoting uncomfortable conversations, the League is building a foundation for anti-racism and demonstrating its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The LWV of Greencastle is going to continue this program next fall and continue to “build a foundation rather than just respond to crises” and “get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” says Hanson.