Veronica Parker: So this session is titled advancing our commitment to equity, social, racial, and economic justice through partnerships. We have introduced ourselves, but just to provide a little bit more context. So most of you may have known me as a coordinator with the California Adult Education Project, but I am also a doctoral candidate at USC in the educational leadership program, and I'm studying urban education.

And so a lot of what we're going to discuss is based on kind of what I study on a routine basis. So I say that to say that I am by no means an expert. I am just taking you all on my exploratory research journey and what I have found and how I feel that it could be applicable to our adult education context. So I just wanted to put that out there.

Again, this is research-based, but very practical, to be honest, but just to let you know that by no way am I an expert. And I'm sure my co-presenter Neda shares the same sentiment, and so I will let her provide a little bit more about her context.

Neda Anasseri: Veronica, I share just a passion of the topic, and I wanted kind of my-- we're going to talk about commitments today and what my commitment is to increase awareness and discuss this topic. And so I'm honored to be your co-presenter today, and so I'm happy to support you through not only your work with your doctoral program but also the work that we're doing in adult education. So thank you for allowing me to be your co-presenter.

Veronica Parker: Thank you.

Neda Anasseri: So as we say that, we wanted to go over a couple of objectives for you today. So today, we are really wanting to develop a shared understanding of equity, racial, economic, and social justice. And I know that many of us throughout the state of California in our program areas have been doing some work over the last almost two years now, but even previously before that and beyond that. So wanting to kind of hone in on the understanding.

We learned a little bit more about multisector approaches, and we want to share that with you today. So we want to share how to create a multisector approach. Learning-- we're going to spend some time learning about principles and programs to enhance partnerships. And we know the work that you're doing with a lot of your America's job centers in California. So how do we not only continue that work but enhance it further?

We're going to discuss systemic changes needed to support the whole learner. And we have a racial justice education action plan to share with you today that we didn't create, but we found to be very helpful and wanted to share and continue sharing.

The agenda is pretty hefty, so we hope we stick around for the entire session. We have a couple of things to cover for you today. I think we kind of discussed it in the objectives, but so you see it at a glance here. We're going to talk a little bit about what's already been done and what we've been doing in adult education, not only that, but discuss systemic and institutionalized change.

We want to go over and review the definition of equity, spend some time on social, racial, and economic justice principles. And we want to discuss our commitments and some of the commitments that have already been shared with us nationally, but what that means to us today in this session.

We definitely want to take some time to talk about grassroots movements and examples. We'll expand a little bit more on workforce partnerships and, of course, that action plan that we promised. And we'll also want to hear from you on some of those impacts. We do have a couple of breakout sessions planned in this presentation as well. Any questions so far, Veronica?

Veronica Parker: No, nothing at this time.

Neda Anasseri: Great. Let me silence that cell phone. All right, so for today, we ask-- we want to set the tone. We want to discuss our meeting norms, and we ask just a couple of favors here today. And we want to ask you to stay engaged with us as we were going to-- like we said, we are not experts, but we definitely want to be a part of the conversation, and we want a group of our friends that we're doing the same kind of work to discuss that with.

We want to be able to speak our truth and feel comfortable speaking our truth, and not feel judged or feel that there's a risk of anybody taking it out of context. So we just want to make sure that this is a safe space for everybody.

And these topics our topics are going to be uncomfortable. We may experience some discomfort and we just want you to accept that discomfort, and sit with that discomfort, and know that we are experiencing the same as a group. So we do want to-- we reassure you that we're all in this together.

Veronica Parker: All right, so thank you, Neda, for providing our objectives as well as our agenda and norms. So before we get started with the work that we'll do in this 90-minute session, we're always very intentional about grounding ourselves in this work. As Neda mentioned before, that it's not always comfortable. Sometimes, it's a hard conversation or hard reality to face, but before we do that, we want to create a space that will be inviting and engaging and align all of us in this room.

And so we have this poem, An Invitation to Brave Space by Micky ScottBey Jones. Micky ScottBey Jones, she's a justice doula. She's a social justice advocate who wrote this poem as part of her work in bringing healing to others. And as we enter this space and begin to do this work, we want to center our heart and our minds as well as our intentions.

So we ask just for a favor, and we want you all, as part of our grounding into this work, we ask that you close your eyes and take a deep breath in. Close your eyes. Take that deep breath in and hold that breath for 10 seconds, and then release a deep sigh because you've made it. You've chosen to come to this session, so we're hoping that we'll all work together. And then with their eyes closed, let's listen as I recite this poem.

"Together, we will create brave space. Because there is no such thing as a safe space, we exist in the real world. We all carry scars, and we have all caused wounds. In this space, we seek to turn down the volume of the outside world. We amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere. We call each other to more truth and love.

We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow. We have the ability to examine what we think we know. We will not be perfect. This face will not be perfect. It will not always be what we wish it to be, but it will be our brave space together, and we will work on it side by side."

So my question to you all is, are you willing to partner with us to create brave space? So using the reactions, if you would like to thumbs up, thumbs down, nope, not going to work for me, may want to leave, we respect all decisions. I'm seeing some justice come in. I'm seeing some thumbs up. So thank you all for that.

And then my next question is, as we open the space as a brave space to do the work, I invite you to select a word or phrase from the poem I just recited to you that will be your intention for our time together. And once you have identified that word or phrase, go ahead and type it in the chat, so that we all understand what our intentions are. And for me, my word is brave. That's my intention to be brave.

All right, I'm seeing seek, truth, responsibility, learn, brave, voice, heard, responsibility to examine, start somewhere, continue to grow, absolutely. Yes, OK, great. Thank you all so much. Yes, courage, responsibility. Absolutely. Yes, thank you all so much. So we have created our brave space, and we have set our intentions.

So as we are going through-- and not only are you all listening to what we are presenting and responding, we hope the level of engagement is set around your intention. So if you say your intention is to grow, then let your intention be to grow and be an active participant in engaging in this work. Or if it's courage and this is something that you've never done before, just by you being here is already setting your intention and implementing your intention by being courageous and being here. So we thank you all for that. So remember your intention as we go through less than 90 minutes at this time. So I will turn it back over to Neda, who will get us started with the presentation.

Neda Anasseri: Thank you, Veronica. My word was together.

Veronica Parker: Yes, together we can.

Neda Anasseri: So, of course, we have so many shared phrases, terms, languages, and I just want to apologize. I got an unstable internet connection. Of course, that's going to happen during our presentation. So I had to stop my video, so I apologize for that.

But we do have a glossary, and we wanted to share that with you today. And it's really an opportunity to share the language and the understanding around equity. There's some really keywords and keyphrases that are shared in that glossary. So Veronica, if you don't mind sharing that link in the chat. I'm actually going to share the glossary live.

And, of course, this is borrowed, and we give credit on this document. We actually borrowed what was borrowed, and so this was from the National Equity Project. SCOE, the Sacramento County Office of Education has been doing some work on DEI-- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. And so we were able to get permission and also use some of the resources that they provided. So I wanted to go over a couple of those with you, and I don't want to read all of those shared terms to you, but we're going to highlight a couple, so let's take a moment to read a couple of these shared terms.

So let's start with ally. A member of a dominant or privileged race, gender, class, citizenship, et cetera, social group who works for justice and equity with members of non-dominant social groups or those with less privilege within a social grouping-- ally. We'll be talking about that today, creating those ally ships.

Let's talk about cultural competence. Let's read that out loud. Used most frequently in the context of health care and education, cultural competence is loosely defined as organizational practices that are responsive to cultural beliefs, language, interpersonal styles, et cetera of those receiving services as well as those providing them. So we have diversity, equity, gatekeeper, implicit bias, inclusion, institutional racism.

Let's then spend some time on intersectionality. So this is a term invented by Black lawyer and scholar Kimberle Williams Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender, and other aspects of identity intersect and inform social inequities and are experienced by individuals or groups of people. The rest of that paragraph is also available for you, and I believe Veronica has shared the link in the chat.

We have microaggressions, power, privilege, racial equity, racial justice. Let's read that structural racism. Public policy, institutional practices, cultural representations, societal conventions that individually and collectively reinforce racial inequity and the advantages of whiteness. And then the last one is white privilege.

So it's very important for us to be able to share these shared languages and understandings as we proceed with this presentation and so that you have it at your fingertips when you're doing the work at your agencies. Let me go back to my presentation.

So in addition to that, we can't do this work without understanding the history. And it is extremely important for us to-- before we can do any of this work, as we're doing all of this work is to look back at the history and understand the history. So we've also provided some links for you on the historical timeline of public education, oppression and education, the lens of systemic oppression. Those links are also available, and Veronica, if you don't mind grabbing them from the notes and popping them in the chat.

And what I'll do is I'll stop sharing the slide. Oh, of course, I do that each time. Excuse me. And so let's take a look at a couple of items in the historical timeline of public education. So sorry if I am making you dizzy with my scrolling, but this is a pretty comprehensive document.

Again, It's very important for us to understand the timeline of public education and some of the events that happened. I don't want to call out too many items here, as we have some other pieces that we want to share with you today. But I did want to point out to you the 1790 and the 1829 pieces here, and that is on-- excuse me, I scroll and make you dizzy.

But basically, the 1790 and the 1829 years were basically established public education for free. So you'll have Pennsylvania right there in 1790. Pennsylvania State constitutional calls for free public education, but not only for poor children. It is expected that rich will pay for their children's schooling. And then, of course, 1820, first public high school-- excuse me, 1829.

Of course, I lose my years here, but I'm sorry. 1827 was the number I was supposed to be sharing with you. Massachusetts passes a law making all grades of public school open to all pupils free of charge. And the point of the matter that we want to share with you today is public education is, in fact, free. And history has showed us that it was a work in progress.

But as we start thinking about how is it accessible, is it accessible for all? And let's look at how it's accessible for adult learners and beyond kind of where we talked about-- where Dr. Good talked to us today about and beyond that. What are we doing to help them beyond that? So to spend some time, we wanted to provide you with the tools to spend some time to have those-- to when you're working on your planning to have those history components to share with your teams.

Now let's present. So this is an opportunity for a celebration. As you know, I think the work is never done in this topic, but there's always some opportunities to kind of really spend some time on celebrating what we have done. And I wanted to take a moment to celebrate some of our agencies that we've heard from over the last 24 hours and some in the opening presentations yesterday.

Many, many, many of our agencies have been providing instruction and training through traditional and non-traditional methods. And Grossmont Adult School is, in fact, one that did something very similar and that was in the CAEP top or the CAEP publication on page 3. And Veronica, I'm a little tied to my presentation here. But do you mind reading to us that inaction piece that Ute mentioned in that publication?

Veronica Parker: Yes, so as you all know or may know now, this publication is based on the CAEP state priorities. And so it's an opportunity for us to showcase what programs are doing at the local level that align with the state priorities with one of them being equity. And so in the San Diego area, Ute is the construction director for the East Region Adult Education Consortium.

And since there is a high population of immigrants and refugees, her region, equity, and action to them means working with business partners to business partners and revising curriculum as well as creating incentives to get students employed quickly and giving them the skills they need to succeed in an uncertain market.

And so as we're speaking about partnerships and what partnerships look like to advance equity, as well as economic justice, and social justice, and racial justice, this is one way that her region is partnering directly with businesses so that when students come out of the program, they are employable with the skills needed by the employer. So that was just one contribution to equity that we wanted to highlight.

Neda Anasseri: Thank you, Veronica. In addition to that, I kind of mentioned our partnerships with National Equity Project, and that might be an organization, a non-profit organization, that is useful and helpful for your work moving forward. But the Sacramento County Office of Education has a series of diversity, equity, and inclusion, seminars for staff, and using the National Equity Project presenters and resources from that project, which some of them of which that we are sharing with you today in this project in this session.

We want to circle back to building learners to participate in economic recovery and using the Riverside Adult School example that we heard from yesterday. Applause to them, but understanding that there is a teacher-- or excuse me, a shortage, and the district identified that shortage in partnering with their Adult School to provide substitutes for that nutrition course that they provide. And that is also a publication that went out through CAEP.

And we have that link to this slide, but we also can share it in the chat as well. Those links for Grossmont and for Riverside Adult School will add, but we can learn from each other here as Riverside Adult School has spent some time and working on that course to address that shortage that the district was having.

We can't forget our friends at CALPRO and the Equity Institute and training that they have not only provided, but have are continuing to provide for us through the California Adult Education professional development calendar. I've seen a couple coming up, so you might want to look at the calendar to see some of those presentations that are available.

But the Equity Institute spent a ton of time to go over some of those elements, and so many of us were invited to participate in that. And Veronica, did you get a chance to participate? And do you have some feedback on the Equity Institute that was offered by CALPRO.

Veronica Parker: Yes, I did have an opportunity to participate in that institute, and it was a great foundational course because it provided a lot of those foundational elements such as addressing implicit bias. It also went over cultural competency and what that looks like in the classroom as well as at school sites. And then it also engaged us in conversation about some of those instructional practices that will be more inclusive of all students in the classroom.

So if you have not had an opportunity to partake in that institute, we would definitely encourage you to connect with CALPRO and see how your institution can take advantage of that institute because it's definitely worthwhile, and it centers adult education.

Neda Anasseri: Absolutely. Thank you, Veronica. And we can't forget our commitment from Dr. Carolyn Zachary with her COABE California brief that was posted on the COABE Journal. We have a link to that as well and we'll share in the chat. We're all committed here from our state administrator down to our students, or I should say up to our students, so we are all in this together. So let's celebrate the work that we have been doing and not have an end date for it, continue to serve our students, and create those opportunities and partnerships moving forward.

Veronica Parker: Absolutely. And so before we move on, one thing that really stuck out to me in Dr. Good's plenary address, if you all had a chance to witness that, is that she talked about how we go about communicating the work that we're doing, especially as it relates to equity, access, inclusion, et cetera.

And so the advance in California Adult Education website is what we just recently launched, and that's where we are highlighting model programs who are aligning to the CAEP state priorities, with one of them being equity. And so we want to, of course, partner with you all to be able to communicate and share out what's going on across the state as it's so important and so invaluable for us to learn from one another and also collaborate with one another.

And so if you are not familiar with that site, I'll go ahead and post the link in the chat and so that you can explore this site, explore some of the model programs that are on there, and also in the exhibitor booth that we have for the Advancing California Adult Education Program that highlights the 14 programs who submitted over this last submission period. And so you can see some of the wonderful work that's going on across the state as it aligns to those state priorities. So just an opportunity for us to continue to learn and understand what everyone is doing.

So moving forward, when we think about reimagining, one thing that always sticks out to me is the understanding, like having a really deeply rooted understanding of how we got to this place and then using system levels to be able to enact change, everlasting sustainable change. I know that us, as educators, we always want to move steadfast and implement programs and really adjust to address the needs, which is definitely great and is admirable, and it helps our adult learners to meet their needs.

But when we think of a systems level, there are some areas where we want to pause with intention and truly reflect and interrogate the root causes of kind of where we are present-day and our commitment to advancement. And so when we think about a systemic change, we think about some of these tenets being equity, social justice, racial justice, and economic justice.

To advance commitment, to advance our commitment to equity, social justice, racial, and economic justice, we must continue to work at the system level and enact change. We can no longer just move steadfast in implementing programs and services and thinking that that's it, but really, doing the work to establish the deep understanding of the root causes and address those causes at the system levels.

And the reason why we should be thinking at the system level is adult literacy education is an issue of racial, economic, and social justice, as well as equity. And our adult learners they're on the front lines of the experience of injustices in our world, and they're just merely trying to survive in the United States.

And so the triple pandemic that they are currently still experiencing with COVID and its ongoing disruption as well as racial injustice and economic inequality that those areas have always been there and have always been known, but the pandemic has definitely exacerbated those issues. And so it gives us an opportunity to really address them at the systems level.

So when we do that, we are treating them as something that can be attained, something that we can do. And not only are we going to be empowering ourselves, we're going to be empowering all stakeholders, so students, administrators, all faculty staff, everyone who is in a part of this adult education system.

Hopefully, by addressing injustices at the system level, we're empowering all stakeholders to reach collective goals, including our adult learners. We want to make sure that we always include them in the conversation, which was another area that Dr. Good touched on in her plenary address.

So when we take on deeply rooted issues such as these, we can create an opportunity for us to all grow together and really enact change. So we will explore some of the principles of these tenets being equity, social justice, racial justice, and economic justice. And that will guide us in our collective action at the systems level.

So we start with, what is equity? So we know that equity has a lot of different definitions, especially depending on the context in which it's being discussed. So as we said, we are currently partnering with the National Equity Project at the Sacramento County Office of Education, and so they offered up this definition of equity.

So equity means that every learner receives what they need to develop their full potential and societal-- excuse me, their full and societal potential. In some practices that we as a system and as agencies can do to ensure that we are being equitable is-- and these are adapted from the National Equity Project too-- is understanding which communities, students, and/or families that are least well served by programs and services offered in developing targeted programs that are tested and monitored to see impact.

Another practice is to routinely engage in equity analysis to determine the extent to which internal practices, internal policies, practices, and culture are reproducing inequity or contributing to greater equity in using those analysis, again, on a routine basis to articulate internal equity goals. And those goals should be evaluated on a routine basis as well. In that way, you're exploring the ways in which an organization or your agency the way that you all can do this.

The way that you can do this is by engaging in self-exploration, critical reflection, and identifying blind spots, and seeking out learning and support to grow as a team, as a system for equity. And then another practice is using an explicit equity and inclusion lens when designing and assessing programs and interventions that are provided in creating structures and engage in processes that ensure that those experiencing the inequities are informing the problem statement, co-designing solution sets, and assessing impacts.

And then our next tenant social justice principles-- so here are some principles, again, adopted from the National Education Association. So here is some principles is working continuously to understand the historic patterns of injustice and hold ourselves accountable for actions in perpetuating, disrupting, and ameliorating-- sorry, I always have a hard time with that word-- those patterns in our education system.

And we want to celebrate and acknowledge diversity whenever we can and understand that mechanisms that perpetuate social oppression and address oppression and discrimination head-on. And then we want to take positive actions to eliminate social injustices.

And then here on the next slide, we have our racial justice principles. So these are all kind of talking about the same thing, with racial justice being a systemic-- racial justice is systemic fair treatment of people of all races resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all, and so it goes beyond anti-racism.

And utilizing these principles, we as a system as well as agencies can design our collective work to dismantle these injustices and work towards creating a just society for all of our adult learners. So I won't read each of the principals. Definitely allow you to take a glance at them, but the premise for us providing these principles is that we are all centering our work around some foundational principle.

And so we can go on to economic justice principles. And so here part of our summit is talking about recovery, so how we can prepare our learners to participate in economic recovery as we are approaching that point. And so in order to do that, of course, we want to think about some economic justice principles. So these principles are from Adler and Kelso, and they are essential and interdependent principles.

So the three principles are participative justice, social justice, and disruptive-- distributive, excuse me, justice. And so participative justice is the input principle, and distributive is the outtake principle, and social justice the feedback and corrective principle. And so these principles, for example, participative justice, describes how each of us we can make an input to the economic process in order for our learners to earn a living.

And this principle of participation does not guarantee equal results. It requires, however, that everyone possess the equal human right to participate in and contribute to the production of marketable goods and services through one's labor. And then this principle rejects monopolies, special privileges, and other exclusionary social barriers to the full participation and economic reliance of every person.

So when we think about participation, we think about some of the ways our learners may not be able to participate in economic justice or do not have access to it, and some of the ways in which is the ability to create wealth, to create intergenerational wealth, or even have an access to affordable housing and being able to provide a roof over their head. We also think about redlining and how that is still an issue in our society. Some of our learners may not be able to have access to mortgages or access to credit, for example, or even job training.

So moving into the distributive justice or the outtake principle, that's defined as the output or outtake rights of the economic system and is matched to each person labor and capital inputs. So many confuse the distributive principle of justice with those of charity. It's not charity. Charity involves the concept of to each according to his needs, whereas distributive is based on the idea that each according to his contribution. And so we don't want to confuse that because it creates conflict and scarcity.

And distributive justice follows participative justice and breaks down when all persons are not given access to opportunities to acquire and enjoy the fruits of their income and labor. And then we have social justice. So that's where feedback and corrective-- that's the feedback and corrective principle, and that detects any distortions that are going on within social justice.

And so it reflects the human striving for other universal values such as truth, love, and beauty, and it compels people to look beyond what is and what ought to be and continually repair and improve their systems for the good of every person. So as it relates to adult learning and our adult education system, it's talking about us improving to make sure that our adult learners have equitable access to all opportunities that are afforded to them.

And so now that we have kind of framed the tenets of justice, social justice, economic justice, racial justice, and then equity in advancing to the next slide, we want to know from you all. And we're going to start this in a breakout room as the breakout activity, but we want to know what does commitment to equity and anti-racism mean in adult education to you present time?

So as we know what the uprisings that have occurred over the last year or so, some of the known problems that we have always known about has been exacerbated. At this present time, what does that commitment to equity and anti-racism mean in adult education? It's something that you as an individual may have explored It's something that you with respect to your agency, or your district, or your partnerships within your consortium may have explored. And so we want to know what does that mean to you at this time.

So at this time, we will open breakout rooms, and we'll allow you all 10 minutes to discuss and name what that commitment is, and then we'll come back and do some sharing. So I'm going to go to the breakout rooms and open them. So I'm just going to create a few, so there aren't too many people in one room.

And then I'm going to open them, and we will have 10 minutes. So the time is now 10:40. We'll go until 10:50. And we'll send you all communication, so be able to look out for your time. So I'm going to open them now. All right, you should see the Join button. All right, everyone should see the Join button to join their respective breakout room. So it looks like mostly everyone has joined one.

All right, we see a few people still in the room. So if you're still here and you have that Join button, go ahead and join your breakout room, and we will reconvene in about 10 minutes.

Neda Anasseri: Do you want me to share that screen with the group? Are we able to do that with this version? Let's see. Share--

Veronica Parker: But I want to, to make sure that we capture the share out. So I apologize for not capturing that on recording, but us in the room definitely experienced it and hopefully felt what you were saying. One thing that stuck out to me that you were talking about and something that I am extremely passionate about, and it's actually a part of my dissertation research, is addressing the person.

So for me, the root causes of some of the inequities in our public education system-- this is my personal opinion-- has to do with people and policies. And one being that maybe as a society, we are not doing enough with critical reflection, personal critical reflection, and really, sitting back and sitting with ourselves and really, evaluating who we are, what our values, beliefs, experiences, et cetera are and how they contribute to asking the question why or even why not.

So I definitely appreciate that because I think that there is such a need for us to examine who we are and how we show up in this education system. One of the workshops that Neda and I have partnered on too is dealing with examining us doing critical self-reflection, naming our positionality, epistemology, intersections, et cetera, so I definitely appreciate that. So thank you for sharing. And anyone else want to share what you all talked about?

Annabelle Rodriguez: I can share a few of the reflections that we discussed. I think we all shared a concern about lack of commitment to equity and anti-racism, but what that looks like in practice. All of our institutions are talking about anti-racism and about equity, but oftentimes, we're looking at just the issue of race without talking about what that might look like for an adult learner.

And in a lot of the regions on the call, we have high immigrant communities and populations. And so we see that there's a lack of anti-racism built into curriculum, one at the adult school, and then at the college level, there are very difficult and unfriendly onboarding processes. And so there's a concern.

We were just switching the conversation to, what would a commitment to equity and anti-racism look like at a community college or at an adult school? And that would look like friendlier application and onboarding processes, easier access to CTE in job training programs, or there's English language support embedded into CTE programs.

And on the adult edge area as well, does it continue to value just their lived experiences, and to value their time, and building in into curriculum anti-racism pedagogy into what is offered? So those are just a few things that we had a chance to discuss.

Veronica Parker: Thank you so much for that. That actually points to another area of my dissertation that you spoke about, Annabelle, is that there is a gap between theory and practice. And so we talk about this work. We talk about anti-racism. We talk about inequities, et cetera, but like you said, what does that look like in practice and really identifying those practices that support anti-racism? And so I agree that there is a need to continue to examine actual practices and the impact that they have on our adult learners, so definitely, I appreciate that.

OK, so we'll move forward. I appreciate the conversation. It sounds like you are all engaged in what we are doing. So we do have more content to share, but we also have more activities to work on as we are working through this session, so I believe-- Ute, you have your hand up. Did you put it down? I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: I know I did. Do you want to move on?

Veronica Parker: No, no, no. We can definitely take your comment or your question for sure.

Speaker 1: No, along with what Annabelle said, there's also the accountability component, right? I think we need to have measurements of accountability in place. This daily work of equity and anti-racism is hard. And not at all as a disciplinary measure, but maybe as for that checking in, right?

Where am I at? I need to be held accountable because, for all of us in the day, we sort of grind and work. It's easy to get lost or then fall back to blaming the system. So our measurements of accountability and training for all of us, professional development, I feel has been neglected in adult education for a long time.

Veronica Parker: Absolutely. Yes, I agree with that. Thank you for sharing those perspectives again. Yes, accountability is so, so, so important, and it ties into that critical reflection because if you're being held accountable, you have the opportunity to sit and critically reflect on what it is that you are doing or not doing and be able to make changes in that manner. So thank you, Ute. Now I apologize. I didn't see your hand raise. So we'll move forward to the next slide.

Neda Anasseri: Yeah, Veronica, these are all great comments that really kind of lead into-- we're focusing on some of the planning pieces, right? So when we're looking at institutionalized, systemic change, the National Education Association says to better align and institutionalize racial equity into the work practices of adult education, for them, it was for the National Education Association.

It is important that we, adult education, understand the connection of racial justice to our mission, vision, core values, and strategic framework. So it really comes back down to we were right, Ute, that accountability piece and where does it fit in. And also starting to think about, where does it fit in into our core values? Is it embedded into our mission, our vision at our agencies?

So those are some of those pieces that we want to start focusing in before we dive into the planning piece. Are those elements incorporated in the foundation of what we're doing?

And so as we kind of transition now, we want to start talking a little bit more about in this context. What are some of the partnerships that currently exist? And it's OK, again, remember it's OK to have to share very little, share all you have. This is an opportunity for us to kind of-- we came back from the breakout room, so we want you to use this slide.

You can hover your camera on your phone. So if you have one of our newer phones, you can hover over the camera. It should open up a website for you that'll take you directly to this page. And it's going to ask you the question of, what types of partnerships currently exist in your respective contexts? You can also join a different way by going to slido.com and entering in the code CAEP2021.

Fun fact. I learned this yesterday from day one of the CAEP summit, so Slido is an interactive tool. We should be able to see responses. So if you can take a couple of minutes here and share with us some of the types of partnerships that can help with your commitments in this work. When we look at this work, what are some of the partnerships, not only that currently exists, but let's think outside the box, and what could exist to help in this context? Veronica, do you have anything else to add?

Veronica Parker: No, nothing at this time. We're just interested as we move forward with the presentation what partnerships exist. We hear about some of those state level partnerships, whether it be like someone posted, Social Services, Human Services, the Employment Development Department, AJCCs, Workforce Development Boards, and so on and so forth. So we just really want to get an idea of what some of the local partnerships look like.

Neda Anasseri: We see some responses coming, our community colleges, department of social services, first five, and children resource centers, yes, workforce resource centers, the web boards, absolutely. United Way, Salvation Army, CalWORKs, definitely, business partners. Yes, absolutely, your local Workforce boards, Goodwill enterprises, very good. AJCCs, Refugee Services tribal communities, our students, yes, partnerships with our students. We learned that this morning from Dr. Good, how that is valuable. We should say we learn that every day from our students, Melissa says.

Absolutely. So this kind of helps us start looking at expanding on those partnerships, right, we might already have some in place. But taking it a step further, and in our work when we look at this anti-racism work that we're doing, and what it is, I think Annabelle mentioned, what does it look like in our curriculum? So what does it look like in our partnerships?

Yeah, shared commitment to equity throughout the region. For example, a group of like-minded colleagues that allow for more courageous conversations. Absolutely. Pre-apprenticeship programs, a link to basic skills instruction, access to living wages. Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing. So we're going to transition to re-imagining partnerships, and talk a little bit about grassroots movements and organizing. So Veronica?

Veronica Parker: Yes, thank you, Nada. So as we were conducting research on this topic, we came across a brief that was published by World Education last November by Siljim. And in that publication, she talked about, of course, the commitment to adult education as it relates to anti-racism and equity. And one thing that she named is the reimagination of partnerships beyond our traditional form of partnerships.

And so one of the areas in which she had named was the partnering with grassroot movements and organizing. And so what does that mean? And what does that look like? So reimagining partnerships is an opportunity, of course, for us to align work with movements for racial, social, and economic justice.

And when we would think about the multisector approach, we're referring to collaboration between organizations in different areas of policy, as well as different sectors, so both public, private, as well as third party sectors, as well as community and people working together to achieve policy outcomes that will meet the needs of our adult learners. And again, one way to do this is the inclusion of grassroot movements and organizing.

So when we work in-- because we all work in marginalized, exploited, and under-resourced communities, therefore, it is essential for us to align our programs to fully and explicitly with grassroots movements for social, racial, and economic justice that are working to dismantle our systemic inequities. And so we're going to go through and present a few examples that we were able to find across the nation of states who are aligning with grassroots movements in order to provide for our adult education.

So those three examples that we have are out of New York. So the New York Literacy and Just Initiative, as well as the Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education, and Literacy Minnesota. So we'll briefly provide an overview of what each of those states are doing with grassroots movements in order to enact change for our adult learners.

So in New York, specifically, one of the ways in which they are partnering with grassroot movements is, they are the director of the New York Literacy and Assessment Center is having regular meetings, participating in regular meetings of white executive directors across the state who are examining issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, implicit bias, and institutionalized racism within non-profit organizations, and discussing how to incorporate anti-racist practices. So that is, of course, doing that professional growth work, but then also incorporating those practices that are anti-racist.

And then another thing that has happened with the Literacy Assessment Center is that they are working in alliance with other adult literacy programs, not-for-profit organizations, and grassroots, and social justice organizations to ensure that every community in New York secures its resources, secure the resources and opportunities they need that adult learners need and deserve. So in 2019, they launched a new initiative, the Literacy and Just Initiative. And this initiative, it aims to build cross-sector partnerships and vehicles for action that advance adult literacy education as part of the broader racial vision for broader vision for racial, social, and economic justice.

And here, on the slide, we have with our three main goals are. So that's to engage adult literacy students and movements, as well as build solidarity with the wider social justice community, and then significantly expand educational opportunities for the 2.2 million adult New Yorkers in need of literacy justice. And so one way that they are doing that in alignment with several grassroots movements is, they put out a call to action to the state of New York to secure more funding. So they advocated for more funding.

Because currently, they are funded at a very low rate. And it equates to about $40 per adult learner per year, which is not nearly enough of what's needed in order to provide adequate services to adult learners to improve their literacy, so that they can participate in the economy. And so that's something that they are doing. And then the strategies that they are using to reach some of the goals that they have is organizing and advocacy, of course, and then developing student and community leadership, as well as capacity building and resource sharing. So that's what New York is doing.

And then we move on into Massachusetts. So Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education, they advocate for adult education and economic justice policy, such as emergency paid sick time, and eviction and foreclosure moratoriums. And so currently, one of their partners is the Massachusetts Community Action Network, which is a grassroots organization. And MCAN, they are at the intersection of economic recovery and immigrant reform.

And so one of the things that they have recently done is, they were instrumental in partnership with the Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education in the passage of House Bill 4647. And that is a state bill that provides substantial protections for tenants, and homeowners, and small businesses from evictions and foreclosures. And so the Adult Education Coalition was a part of that House Bill in the passage of it, along with their partnership with MCAN. So that's another example of how adult education programs are partnering with grassroots movements.