Important note: We have separate registration forms to be able to easily assess and be intentional about the balance of BIPOC and White participants in the course. Please be sure to complete the appropriate form:
Scroll down to read what BIPOC alums are saying about Aiming for Allyship
Aiming for Allyship is a multi-week, multiracial, intersectional antiracism training featuring 12 facilitated hours, plus homework and small group “pod” meetings. Sessions occur across four Wednesdays, 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Eastern
Session 1: March 3, 4:00-7:00pm Pacific Time / 7:00-10:00pm Eastern Time
BREAK/ POD March 10
BREAK/ POD March 17
Session 2: March 24, 4:00-7:00pm Pacific Time / 7:00-10:00pm Eastern Time
BREAK/ POD March 31
BREAK/ POD April 7
Session 3: April 14, 4:00-7:00pm Pacific Time / 7:00-10:00pm Eastern Time
BREAK/ Pod: April 21
BREAK/ Pod: April 28
Session 4: May 5, 4:00-7:00pm Pacific Time / 7:00-10:00pm Eastern Time
Continuing Education credit is available upon request to Rev. Dr. Joseph Santos-Lyons, DRUUMM Community Minister at revjoseph@druumm.org.
This virtual program is facilitated by Justice Movement and sponsored by DRUUMM. The training is open to all and includes opportunities for caucusing in racial groups.
Sliding scale options: In addition to General (default) registration, we offer options that take your financial circumstances into account: Sustaining, for those with stable incomes and ability to save, is what allows us to offer the sliding scale. Accessible is intended for students and those without much extra in their budget. Guest Passes are available for those with little to no income. The Redistributive option is for those with the ability and desire to pay for one or more others in addition to themselves. A Custom option is also available.
If none of the financial tiers are accessible to you, or you would like to increase your contribution, please consider pooling resources from your faith community to support your tuition. Grow awareness and support of the work you are doing by hosting a fundraiser, creating a call out to your faith community, or asking for matching funds.
In order to begin to institutionalize this work, DRUUMM has supported these courses financially for the last few years. Staff have also put in many hours handling registration, strategic planning, marketing, and sending personal messages to hundreds of UU community members. Giving more is a direct way to support DRUUMM’s important work, and the support of white communities and white allies can help ensure that this work can continue.
Registration Ends Wednesday February 24, 2027.
About the Training
You’ve heard the term ally, and you want to be there for people. You don’t want to unconsciously contribute to sexism, ableism, racism, and other forms of systemic oppression in your life and community. But what to do? What to say? We’re here to help.
This twelve-hour, four-session course is designed to deepen relationships, understanding, support, and commitment to living into our UU values. Unitarian Universalism calls on us to center love and fight for social justice and equity.
Acting as an ally can feel complicated. We specialize in breaking down complex concepts into manageable and illuminating pieces, prioritize connection, and make learning allyship skills deeply personal. Our goal: help you build the confidence to address challenging topics with empathy and understanding. Each Aiming for Allyship session is structured to challenge, inspire, and empower participants, culminating in a path toward active allyship that respects and enhances the dignity of all individuals.
To achieve this, we will unpack how identity and positionality influence power dynamics and how you can use that knowledge to break down unhealthy patterns that can limit you personally, damage your relationships and impact your communities. We will also investigate the ways UU values guide us towards action, as well as plan and practice how to respond when you are called in or out, and how to call others in or out with empathy and greater confidence. You will learn in community about cancel culture, tone policing, radical love, and so much more. This course will be an opportunity to do some inner work, ask hard questions, and be a force for change in your congregation and beyond.
Don't miss this chance to build your intersectional antiracism skills and continue your journey toward effective allyship; join Justice Movement facilitators Natalie, Danya, and Atena as they guide you through a deep dive into allyship and accountability.
Testimonials from BIPOC Aiming for Allyship Alums
"I would invite you to take this course in order to educate yourself and unlearn colonial mentality, racist behavior and white supremacy. It takes time so give yourself this gift."
"Really practical and hands-on way of doing ongoing allyship work"
"The Justice Movement's exercises, resources, and bonding opportunities with others in the class gave me crucial support at a critical time for me-- gave me more self awareness, tools, inspiration, and courage to be an ally in racial justice and not just a fearful passive witness."
"Thank you Justice Movement for a thought provoking, grounded in love training. The DRUUUM Aiming for Allyship 4 week course helped me to take a deeper examination of my own privilege and my own bias. I will continue to review the lessons, resources, and tools I received in this training to bring liberation and solidarity to advance human rights and social justice in my daily life and in the broader community. Deep gratitude to Justice Movement for this important and amazing training."
"I’m so much more enlightened to the many ways marginalized people are oppressed, and am better equipped to step up and speak out."
What to Expect
We will work off of a slide presentation for each of the facilitated sessions; the link to the slide deck is shared at the beginning of each session in the zoom chat. You will have access to the presentations and other resources during and after the course. Most folks find it helpful to follow along with the presentation on their device; if you have the option of logging into the course via computer (vs. a tablet or cellphone) we encourage using a computer to make following along more accessible.
Other important access notes:
- Live captions along with live transcription will be made available.
- We do not record the sessions to support authentic engagement during the sessions.
- If you miss a session we recommend you review the slide presentation before the next session.
- Each session includes a 10 minute break and somatic moments and we encourage participants to take care of themselves as-needed.
- We encourage folks to have their cameras on during the facilitated sessions to support connection and access to nonverbal cues.
- CE Certificate. A certificate is available at the end of the course for those who attend each session and complete and present the final homework (if you miss a session and are interested in receiving a certificate, we ask that you write a summary of the session that you missed).
Time Investment: In addition to the 12 hours of facilitated learning, homework and small group pod work are assigned. See more details below.
Pod Work & Homework. We place folks into small groups/pods for the duration of the course. The idea is that you meet between the facilitated sessions to connect, process the content and engage with the homework. We assign key homework and bonus homework activities and resources for each session. We acknowledge that everyone comes to this course with different capacities. However, please carve out time if you can! We consistently hear about how meaningful the pod meetings are, and how much they help process the homework.
Pod FAQs:
Q: Do we have to meet on the assigned pod time?
A: No, we just set the time to make it easier for y'all, if it works for everyone in your pod to meet a different time/day in the 'pod week' that's fine.
Q: Where do we meet?
A: You can arrange with your pod members for how/where to meet. If it works to meet in person you can. If folks prefer to meet online that's also fine. We trust you will have access to your own zoom / google meet or other online meeting platform to facilitate the pod meetings.
Natalie Brewster Nguyen (they/them) has over 20 years of experience in teaching strategies related to privilege, oppression, and structural racism, notably in Unitarian Universalism contexts. They began their anti-racism journey with Groundworks and The People's Institute, focusing on institutional accountability and capacity building within organizations. Natalie’s background in gender studies and sociology, combined with their personal experiences as a queer POC and sex worker, enrich their comprehensive anti-racism trainings. They co-own and are the Executive Director of an historic art studio warehouse called Splinter Collective in Tucson. Splinter Collective is a space for artists and a 501c3 non-profit focused on amplifying marginalized artists, housing justice, and community building.
Danya (Xena) Davis is a multifaceted educator and facilitator with over two decades of experience. She has worked and lived extensively in Canada, South Africa, the United States and Guatemala and holds degrees in business administration majoring in economics, a bachelor of arts with honors in international development studies and a masters degree in Diversity studies from the University of Cape Town. Her thesis focused on social justice pedagogy and how to teach white folks about race and racism. One of the major findings that she continues to commit to is the need for her as a white person to strategically leverage her racial positionality to encourage herself and other white folks to show up, learn, unlearn and do better.
Danya has experience advocating for refugee rights in Canada, health and wellness for working class folks in the corporate sector of rural South Africa, carrying out quantitative and qualitative research for academic projects focused on racism and anti-racism and monitoring and evaluation for university level social and racial transformation projects.
She has a long practice of integrating social justice into her innovative acrobatics teaching that emphasizes inclusivity and power dynamics. Danya founded innovative enterprises such as the FemPower Acrobatic Festival and the acclaimed Acro and Social Justice Teacher Training. As a co-founder of Justice Movement with Nat, since 2018 Danya has been focusing on developing intersectional social justice content and offerings for individuals and organizations across multiple sectors and countries with Justice Movement.
Atena Danner (she/her) is an educator, a writer, and a critical thinker who uses creativity to facilitate connection, curiosity and discovery in joyful learning environments. Her years of experience as an adult learning facilitator and cultural worker culminate in an anti-racist approach that warmly challenges learners to expect rigor, care, and just practices. Committed to authenticity and justice, Atena designs engaging experiences for learners who want more for themselves, their networks, and their communities.
