Doing ‘The Work’: An Introduction

What is ‘the work’?

To us at The Winters Group, it’s “creating transformative and sustainable solutions for individuals and organizations in support of their efforts to create more equitable and inclusive environments.”  And we know this work goes beyond the nine to five. It goes beyond fostering inclusion in the workplace.  It’s about impacting wider systems of inequity. It’s about creating a more sustainable world with social and economic equity and contributing to a flourishing planet, as the traditional “triple bottom line” model suggests. In the end, it’s about building connections – with ourselves, with the world and systems around us, and with others who are doing the same transformative work in their own spheres of influence.

In this series, we want to share with you a deeper look into the mission of our corporate social responsibility arm Live Inclusively™ Actualized “to break down systemic barriers that impact marginalized communities” and into the work of the people and organizations we support who are doing this barrier-breaking work daily.

That is part of ‘the work’—supporting people on the front lines, those who are ripping out the roots of the inequities that we see daily in our corporate D&I spaces. It’s continuing to challenge people to grow in awareness and understanding of these inequitable systems and “dare to be powerful”, as Audre Lorde would say, in the face of them. Ultimately, ‘the work’ is daring to believe in a sustainable, equitable world and being willing to act on it.

In June, we closed our first Live Inclusively Actualized grant cycle, and we were able to give out twelve grants for a total of $75,000. We are humbled and inspired by the ways in which these organizations are acting to create change in their communities, and we will be sharing with you over the course of this series the ways in which they are impacting systems of inequity in their communities and more broadly.

There are many ways to impact systems and these organizations from all over the country are taking different approaches and targeting different issues. Some are using arts as advocacy; some are disrupting systems of social inequity like the school to prison pipeline; some are creating opportunity and access for the next generation of leaders or for those who have fallen through the cracks of our current systems.

If we are truly building more equitable and inclusive environments, we see their work is our work. That is our corporate social responsibility – the work of connection, sustainability, solidarity, and empowerment. We hope that this series gives you a glimpse into not only the roots of inequity in our world but also the ways in which D&I work is a piece of a larger puzzle of disrupting and dismantling these systems of inequity. We want to share the stories of these organization in hopes that they serve as an inspiration for you in continuing to cultivate a world that has fully actualized access, equity, and inclusion for all people.

As you follow us in this series, make sure you take our pledge and let us know how you Live Inclusively.