Build Your Allyship Skills with Paradigm REACH

Creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces requires both structural and individual change. At a structural level, organizations must embed equity and inclusion into their systems and processes. At the same time, culture is shaped and reshaped every single day by people’s interactions with one another — nearly every interaction has the potential to advance inclusion, or to undermine it. Allyship is one of the most impactful ways individuals can create a more inclusive culture, and today, I’m excited to share that our new online training course “Practicing Allyship” is available on our Paradigm REACH blended learning platform. 

Why allyship?

As organizations seek to equip people with fundamental inclusion skills, many ask us about allyship — how they can enable people to engage in ongoing learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and equip them with skills for speaking up and taking action. Over the past several years, we’ve facilitated allyship workshops for tens of thousands of employees across dozens of companies. We’ve found that while a lot of people want to build ally skills, most simply don’t know what that means in practice. 

What does this course teach?

The REACH “Practicing Allyship” course translates our popular instructor-led workshop into a fresh, interactive learning experience that’s accessible, scalable, and impactful. In the course, people will learn:

• What allyship is and why it matters.
• About the complexity of identity. We encourage people to explore their own identities, introduce the concept of intersectionality, and encourage people to think about how various aspects of our identities may be more or less salient, depending on context. 
• A five-part framework for practicing allyship.
• Skills for deepening learning, noticing inequity, and taking action.
• How to apply these skills in various workplace scenarios. 

Our Paradigm REACH blended learning platform combines online training with resources to lead offline discussions and translate learning to action. Our allyship training course includes a discussion guide for enabling small group dialogue, access to a live workshop facilitated by me, and a downloadable strategy sheet to help people remember and apply what they learn. We believe DEI should be an ongoing learning journey; organizations who sign up for REACH get access to all of our DEI learning resources, including multiple courses, microlearnings, and written resources. Learn more about REACH here.

What impact can you expect?

We’ve spent years studying the efficacy of our allyship workshops. Our goal with these workshops is not to replace structural and systemic change efforts — instead, it’s to equip people with skills to foster more inclusive workplaces. We do this by increasing awareness and motivation, and providing strategies that enable people to take action. To evaluate these learning outcomes, we run pre- and post-surveys. Across thousands of learners, we’ve found a 36 point increase in people’s understanding of what it means to be an “ally,” and 88% of people who attend tell us they leave thinking differently about allyship.

Signing up for a trial

We’re so excited about this course, we want to make it easy for organizations to try it out and see how it can help their team become better allies. Join one of our weekly REACH information sessions for a demo, then we can arrange a free two week trial for your organization.

We hope you will enjoy the course! 

September 14, 2021

If you would like to explore the REACH "Practicing Allyship" course, contact us today!