Agreements: NINE Workshops

Last Updated: January 1, 2021

• We commit to the ongoing practice of antiracism and have zero tolerance for optical allyship, a term coined by Latham Thomas to mean allyship that is purely virtue signaling, performative, and surface-level. 

• We fundamentally value a diversity of thoughts, ideas, beliefs, experiences, and the inclusion of people regardless of their race, gender, color, language, national origin, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation, or age. 

• We examine and confront our own assumptions and perceptions and reject White privilege. 

• We honor the voices and experiences of BIPOC womxn in all spaces. 

• NINE is a safe space for all womxn and in honoring that - individual experiences shared within our spaces are to remain confidential and not to be shared with others. 

• It is permissible to share lessons learned, but names and other identifiers remain confidential. 

• We operate out of an empathy lens and hold ourselves individually responsible for cultivating safe spaces for other womxn. 

• We abstain from apologism, victim-blaming, and gaslighting. 

• We seek to evolve and respect opinions and experiences that are different than our own. 

• We listen without judgment and ask if feedback is desired before offering unsolicited advice. 

• We speak from our own experiences and use “I” statements instead of generalizations. 

• We acknowledge when a moment for empathy was missed and circle back to self-correct. 

• We share the onus of pointing out behavior that might not be aligned with our values and agreements - even if not personally affected, and we support others who have the braveness to call out harmful behavior.