Allyship in Action

Importance of Allyship 

Being an “ally” is more than a label. It’s about being willing to act with and for others in pursuit of creating equity. To build a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace demands both structural and individual change. While the organisation can embed equity and inclusion into their systems, policies and processes, culture requires human interaction and consistent  intervention. Culture is a living organism that needs life force to thrive and flourish; it is shaped and reshaped every day by people’s interaction with one another. Every single human interaction potentially carries the power to either embolden inclusion or to weaken it.

Allyship is a powerful systemic alliance that can possibly nourish an inclusive culture. It is about recognizing, acknowledging unearned privileges, taking responsibility and actions towards building a workplace that stands for equal opportunities, safe and fair environment and embracing diversity.

Learning Objective:

• Unpack and define the word and practice of being an ally.
• Increase belief of why allies are important.
• Discuss the challenges of applying and practicing allyship.
• Encourage effective ally behaviour

Who should attend:

• Allyship in Action is designed for anyone who is looking to create more diverse, equitable and inclusive spaces and become a better ally in the workplace.

Program content:

Allyship in action program is a 4-hour interactive session to explore the meaning of the term ally and identify actionable first steps that employees can take to be a more active and visible ally. This program will also provide a jumpstart for leaders and HR professionals who want to create an allyship program within their organization and champion the “diverse and inclusive culture” cause.

This program will cover :

Day: 1

• What is Allyship and why is it important?
• Decoding Unconscious biases.
• Types for Allyship in DE&I
  • Women Equity
    • Feminine Vs Masculine thinking process and frameworks
    • Building inclusive and equitable workplace for women
    • Championing women equity at the workplace as an ally.

Day: 2

• LGBTQIA+
  • Understanding Gender & Sexuality
  • Inclusive language & Behavior
  • Specific actionables at workplace as an Ally

• PWD & Neurodivergence
  • Understanding disability: Physical and Neuro
  • Building inclusive and equitable workplace for PWD & NDs
  • Actionables at workplace
• Race, Ethnicity, Culture
  • Decoding Race, Ethnicity & Culture
  • Actionables at workplace

About the Faciltator

Ritushree Panigrahi, a transgender woman, a lawyer, a diversity, equality, and inclusion professional. She has more than a decade of experience in the legal field working in the field of constitutional, labour, employment, and corporate law.

With a Human Resources Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University (ecornell) Ritushree brings both the knowledge of Human Resource and DE&I to the table, and her experience as a lawyer ensures that the organization follows important legislation guidelines pertaining to the community.

A queer rights activist, she is associated with many campaigns and issues of LGBTQIA+ community. She regularly writes on different platforms like The Quint, Youth Ki Awaz, and Gaysi raising the issues impacting the LGBTQIA+ community.

Lakshmi Sreenivasan, is an ICF trained Coach, Learning & Organisational Development specialist, and a practicing psychologist.

She has over with over 18 years of experience with strong exposure to designing and executing interventions for multiple industry domains. She has successfully co-created comprehensive, high-impact learning initiatives with organizations to manage Culture change, Competency mapping, Change Management, Training Systems, and Development center.

Lakshmi Sreenivasan comes with a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology. She is a trained CBT & RECBT, Client-Centered Therapist, Clinical hypnotherapist. Lakshmi is a Queer Affirmative Counselling Practitioner certified by MHI in collaboration with TISS. She has successfully completed Suicide Gatekeeper training and has volunteered with a suicide prevention cell in the past.

Program outcome:

By the end of the program,

• Participants will be able to define and explore terms, build knowledge, awareness, and skill to establish or strengthen your own allyship practice
• Participants will be able to identify the importance and responsibility of being an ally.
• Participants will learn specific ways support colleagues to be more effective allies to disadvantaged groups

Certification process: Every participant will receive a certificate post successful completion of online assessment.

Duration: 4 hours

Dates: April 23rd – 24th , 2022 11 to 1 pm IST