Building For Mission

Throwing it back to some powerful moments with these #ThrowbackThursday pics! In 2021, BFM partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) to develop a high-impact REDI (Race, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) plan for their organization. Together CAFB and BFM created an internal REDI team and Culture Committee, and built a cross-section of leaders empowered to address REDI at multiple levels within the organization. The result of this was a clear vision for where the organization currently is in regards to REDI and where they want to go! The photos below are from in-person learning sessions facilitated by BFM's Tamika Mason, Mark Wilson, Chante' Chambers and Krystle Sanders (lower left-hand side of collage). Learning sessions are essential to building lasting change because they develop a shared foundation of language and goals from which the team can work. Eager to enhance your REDI efforts? Let's partner together and build capacity for equity, diversity, and inclusiveness at your organization. Contact us at [email protected] for more information! #REDI #DiversityEq #LearningAndDevelopment #CapacityBuilding #Equity Image Descriptions: Groups of people sitting around tables during presentations; one group photo of BFM members Tamika Mason, Krystle Sanders, Chante' Chambers and Mark Wilson.

What does true partnership mean to you? Last year at the Mid-Atlantic Association of Community Health Centers' (MACHC) annual gathering, BFM team members Mark Wilson and Tamika Mason led sessions focused on practical tools to move from co-existing to deeper partnerships with community partners. This work gets to the heart of BFM's vision for every organization to have thriving multicultural teams, which includes fostering strong external partnerships. When we build diverse and interconnected networks, our impact grows exponentially because of the variety of gifts and skills brought to the table. Are you looking to provide your staff or wider association members with practical tools at an upcoming conference? Contact BFM to co-design a high-impact session tailored to your needs. Let’s work together to create a transformative experience for your audience! #Networking #Partnership #CommunityHealth #FacilitationSkills #Collaboration #TalentEQ Image Descriptions: Pictured is BFM CEO Tamika Mason presenting to groups of MACHC members.

How can you harness the power of community in your advocacy efforts? Yesterday, BFM facilitated one of the plenary sessions at the Community Health Care Association of NYS (CHCANYS) Annual Conference. Our presentation centered on the importance of storytelling to build a diverse and powerful base. As part of the session, Dr. Neil Calman shared a powerful call to increase funding for community health centers. In addition to hearing his story, Dr. Calman reflected on the power of storytelling. “Through telling our stories, we realize that we didn’t get here on our own. I am because of who my parents were, and their parents were. And now I’m part of the larger movement.” If you’re looking to amplify your advocacy work and connect with the wider movement, reach out to BFM! We’d love to help you develop the storytelling skills that Dr. Calman harnessed this week. #PublicNarrative #CommunityHealthCenters #Advocacy #CommunityOrganizing #CHCANYS Image description: Pictured in the images are Natalie Thomas (BFM) and Dr. Neil Calman (CHCANYS), and Natalie on stage with Ciara Walton (BFM).

At BFM, we believe that meaningful dialogue is key to advancing Race, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) in your organization. That’s why we’ve created a comprehensive #DiversityEQ Dialogue package that equips your team to lead powerful, transformative conversations and puts #DiversityEQInPractice. Here’s what the package includes: ?? 4 Half-Day Training Sessions: We train a small group of team members on facilitation skills, managing diverse groups, and leading impactful REDI conversations. ?? Facilitation Materials: You’ll receive customized materials for eight dialogue sessions, including pre-readings, discussion questions, and facilitator guides. ?? Practical Outcomes: Dialogue sessions help participants process their own diversity identities, build trust across differences, and identify practical steps to enhance REDI impact. Ready to empower your team to lead meaningful REDI conversations? Contact us at [email protected] to learn more about our Dialogue Facilitation Training and how we can customize it for your organization! #TeamBuilding #Leadership

Building For Mission CEO Tamika Mason, and consultants Mark Wilson and Ciara Walton, partnered with Orion Resource Partners to lead five company-wide sessions to deepen participants' knowledge and skills related to diversity and unconscious (implicit) bias. We are thrilled to share Yasmin Carr-Bond, Orion's Compliance Associate/HR Manager's reflections on the impact of our work together. #DiversityEQInPractice #Diversity #UnconsciousBias #Leadership

In our final week of the #DiversityEQinPractice series we are looking at ways one can Leverage and Manage Social Diversity at work. Leveraging and managing #socialdiversity amplifies the strengths of working with diverse groups of people, which allows us to have greater results than we would have on our own. An example of this is intentionally sharing power; below, Tamika Mason shares three ways to share power at work. #DiversityEQ #Diversity #TeamBuilding #Leadership

In our latest newsletter, we focused on Black women in leadership, their experiences and challenges, and insights on best practices for both career success and self care while leading an organization. Read our newsletter here: https://bit.ly/4eIAqcA Sign up to receive our quarterly newsletter directly in your inbox: https://lnkd.in/e2xa_6tu

One aspect of leveraging and managing your own personal identity is knowing what can trigger a reaction in you. Oftentimes these reactions happen subconsciously- suddenly you are feeling frustrated, tense, or defensive. Identifying what triggers us and managing how we respond is critical to nurturing psychological safety in a work environment. Identifying the "why" of what's making us uncomfortable is an important prelude toward resolution, healing, developing more controlled responses, and gaining a better understanding of the diversity around us. In the linked article, Fenella Smith advises on how you can identify and manage your triggers at work. #DiversityEQInPractice #DiversityEQ #ManagingPersonalIdentity #WorkplaceTriggers https://lnkd.in/g2Wm-h9t

#TransparentLeadership #Diversity #Relationships #Inclusive #LeveragingPersonalIdentity #DiversityEQ

This week in our #DiversityEQinPractice series we will be looking at Leveraging and Managing Personal Identity. This dimension invites us to think through the various identities we hold when choosing how to express our opinions and emotions at work. Developing this skill enables us to shift from responding out of incontrollable emotion to leveraging our identity and emotion in intentional ways. #DiversityEQ #LeveragingPersonalIdentity #Diversity #TeamBuilding #Leadership