Introduction & Grounding

Welcome. We’re so grateful you are here.

This guidebook was born out of the collective visioning and co-creation of people across organizations and communities throughout New York State, coming together to re-design and re-imagine what equity as a practice looks like in our work right now. We arrived at this guidebook from a series of Design Labs that invited imagination, creativity and breath into our work for equity and liberation.

At Rebellious Root, we honor conversations as seeds. We believe that the seeds we plant today have the ability to cultivate new, just, and rebellious futures. In these upcoming pages are conversations embedded within a living document which calls and demands to be built on, stretched out, and placed into action.

This guidebook offers a blueprint for how to be in relationship with that vision through the delivery of programming, the implementation of policies, and the embodiment of equity. We ask that you move through this guidebook with care for yourself, your colleagues, your spaces, and with the people that we do this work alongside in mind. Our collective liberation is bound together.

We honor the sacred Lenape land we are rooted in New York State and the indigenous wisdom past, present, and future that guides the work of equity and liberation. We call forth with urgency  the work for justice in this moment and hold that as we sit on stolen land, this work has always, always been urgent.

This guidebook is dedicated to all of our ancestors who dreamt of us and our spaces – and for all the members of our communities who will inherit abundant new spaces and worlds because we dared to keep dreaming, keep being, and keep doing the unimaginable.

  • Rebellious Root is a New York City-based, worker-owned cooperative dedicated to equity, social justice, and collective liberation.
  • LGBTQ+ Health Initiative is based out of the University of Rochester with a goal to decrease the health disparities of our LGBTQ+ communities and improve racial justice within our communities by supporting New York State health and human service agencies improve equity in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
  • Community Advisory Board for the LGBTQ+ Health Initiative
  • Health and human service organizations throughout NYS, funded by the NYS AIDS Institute
  • Bodega Legal (“BL” for short) is a radical community lawyering project focused on translating legal systems for community members to build tools for community empowerment. Just like your neighborhood corner store, Bodega Legal is an accessible form of legal services for our communities. We are honored to join you and your organization on your journey to envisioning and creating a workspace]that practices equity every day! While legal compliance at work doesn’t always scream “Liberation!” it does give an opportunity to not only fulfill our obligations under the law and protect us from liability but to bring our values and principles into daily decision-making in a systemic way

Throughout this guidebook, you’ll see BL highlighting policy and compliance tools rooted in Care, Dignity or Equity. Each box will hold information on laws, resources, and tips to take you beyond current minimum standards and into your vision of the future. There is also an appendix at the end of the guidebook with links, templates, and other resources to support you in creating and sustaining a workplace of your dreams! Resources predominately pertain to New York State and Federal laws as of February 1, 2023. However, always check your local government (county or city/town/etc.) laws, as they may have additional requirements and/or changes.

Before you go, please note:

Any content provided in this guidebook by Bodega Legal is for educational and information purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. All of the information provided here is publicly available but synthesized here for your convenience. For legal advice specific to your organization and circumstances, please contact an attorney.

Imagine you’re convening a new group of people or recommitting to an equity space; mindsets (along with community agreements) are a powerful opening tool to:

  1. Align on shared language
  2. Create a space of new possibilities
  3. Shift normative approaches to the work and each other
  4. Invite people to commit or try on something new (as part of the session or as ongoing practice

Mindsets can be used during the following:

  • At the opening of a meeting or workshop
  • Prior to introducing new ideas, programs, etc.
  • During retreats and strategic planning sessions
  • Creating the container for difficult conversations

This framework is adapted from Resonance Network Lab.

Overview of Mindsets:

  • Curiosity: Dominant culture rewards having more answers than questions. When we practice curiosity, we are open to new ideas, solutions, and ways of thinking. We are unafraid to ask many questions, deeply listen for answers, and be in the process of “answering” rather than having a single answer.
  • Bias to Action: When we have a bias to action, our solutions move from theoretical to tangible and actionable.
  • Fail Fast to Learn Fast: Dominant culture thrives on individual heroes finding singular solutions to solve problems. When we fail fast to learn fast, we don’t shy away from trying something out because we fear failure. We resist dominant culture’s demand for perfectionism and know that the faster we find out what won’t work, the faster we’re contributing to our learning and growth
  • Generative: When we’re in a generative mindset, we build on others’ ideas and offer ideas that generate more, knowing that the twentieth unexpected idea we have may be the most highly innovative and do-able. We hold an expansive, imaginative space as sacred, knowing there will be time to define ideas later.
  • Generous: When we are in a generous mindset, we are resisting scarcity culture because we know we have enough: enough time, enough resources, and enough brilliance. We have enough when we work collectively towards our liberation.
  • Lean into Risk: When we lean into risk, we acknowledge that liberation calls for strategic risk-taking. As we try on ways to manifest change, we don’t always know exactly what the result will be. We will help each other find and take strategic risks that serve liberation.

In Action:
How can I use this tool?:

  • Put participants into small groups for 3-5 minutes and have them share based on which mindsets feel new or they want to stretch into
  • Invite participants to choose one to try on for the duration of the session and that the group can count on them for

See Appendix A for a one-page version of the Mindsets you can use

Download the Complete Guide

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