Let me let you in on a secret:
Trauma-Informed Care has been found out.
Weā€™ve been trying to prop it up, but itā€™s time to call it out, yā€™all.
Cohort Six: September 4, 2024
SIGN ME UP NOW!Why?
Because Trauma-Informed Care alone has not been holding up its end of the agreement:
- It’s clinical
- It has vague definitions
- It lacks a practical framework
- It uses an inconsistent approach across various service-based industries
AND…
It absolutely does not address the impact of systemic oppression which makes it an impossible framework for supporting marginalized survivors.
Are you disappointed?
Yeah, been there. Been there so much that I kinda took matters into my own hands and began the long journey of secretly carving out a clear path that works across all industries seeking to put humanity back into their service provision. 10 years later, Anti-Oppressive Advocacy® is a proven framework that unseats the oppressive structures embedded within care strategies by interrogating the system instead of those in need.
SIGN ME UP
“I feel more comfortable accessing my voice and using it to amplify the need for Anti-Oppressive Advocacy® systems.”
CLIENT
“I learned a lot about how I show up in advocacy spaces, I learned about what roles within whiteness I defer to, how I maneuver and navigate power in a powerful institution, and so much more.”
CLIENT
To support the divestment from anti-Blackness and White Supremacy through public scholarship, collective accountability, and systemic change management
A culture where research-based practice and practice-based research work in tandem to center the liberation of oppressed people.
A.B.L.E. supports leaders in the life-long journey of unraveling oppressive social conditioning constructs to promote equity-based scholarship.
Founded by nationally-awarded anti-violence expert and anti-oppressive coach, Wanda Swan, the institute reflects a change framework rooted in Black Feminist Abolitionism, Bystander Intervention, Multicultural Organizational Development, and the principles of Transformational Justice. Wanda shares her nearly two decades of experience in moving liberation for all from dream to strategy to reality and is excited to invite you to explore your anti-oppressive goals within this learning container.
What makes A.B.L.E. so amazing is its two-armed engagement offers and its ability to meet you where you are. People have the opportunity to learn broadly in a membership container through the #PracticeLiberation Academy or hone specific skills through our Anti-Oppressive Advocacy® certification program for middle, senior, and executive managers.
This isn't a high-brow space for self-proclaimed non-racists to perform their brand of activism. This is a learning space for folx who are actively wanting to move from "Doubt" to "Do" even when it means putting their vulnerability on display.
These are our expectations of every learner.
Vulnerability.
Humility.
Accountability.
No perfectionism, competition, or examples of "niceness" ARE necessary.
A.B.L.E. wants and requires you to get rid of the stigma around "being caught learning."
There is room for you here to unpack your current understanding of your culture and its origin stories. Get comfortable being uncomfortable for the liberation of all.
In return, you get:
- +An road map of continuing education and professional development to confront your growing edges/barriers to dismantling oppression
- +Access, Access, Access!: Through minicourses, trainings, certification programs, coaching, and monthly live sessions with the A.B.L.E. team!
- + A community of folx on the same journey as you to provide support!
- + Trained facilitators to provide mentorship through guided discussions
"The gap between wanting to do and needing to do this work is only as dire as your commitment to equity.”
-Wanda Swan
The A.B.L.E. Institute wants to help close that gap by offering a space that allows for the unraveling of anti-oppressive and anti-racist belief systems. Together we will identify common oppressive habits, connect them to larger systemic conditioning, and dig into just why White Supremacy is everyone’s default (yes, even mine)!
We’re in our 4th year of teaching this framework and we want to teach it to you!
The Anti-Oppressive Advocacy® online course is a six-month engagement that supports professionals in human-centered service provision industries (advocacy, healthcare, education, technology, art, social justice, public service, DEI, etc.) in recognizing ways that traditional systems fail to provide equitable care for marginalized communities.
Professionals invested in unraveling their oppressive muscle memory have the opportunity to learn in a hybrid-learning cohort model with other leaders across the country. A combination of self-guided learning modules, facilitated group spaces, common reading, and reflective journaling provide a multi-layered professional development experience that blends research and praxis.
Topics of engagement include:
- The history of Whiteness as a racial identity marker, ideology, and strategy for sustaining oppression.
- How the role and history of anti-Blackness served as a backdrop for inequitable care for Black survivors of violence.
- Oppressive advocacy strategies in human-centered service structures and the ways they have actively contributed and/or been complicit in aligning with inequitable service provision.
- Strategies to transform service provision from non-racist to anti-oppressive.
"Friends doing anti-violence work: I took this course from LaWanda Swan last fall and it has had a huge impact on my work as a domestic and sexual violence advocate, helping me to understand the ways in which I have centered whiteness in my work as a TTA provider, recognize the harm I have caused in doing so, and learning to do better. I can't say enough good things about the course and Wanda!”
CLIENT
“It's a wonderful opportunity to interrogate our own roles in upholding whiteness and white supremacy in advocacy work, to deconstruct that, and move toward building a world steeped in equity and justice.”
