“…feeling at a heartfelt level that everybody is like, ‘we’re all in.’ There is no exit strategy. This has now become a part of how we think and how we live. It’s not just here at CICF, this is the way we live our life.”

—Pamela Ross

CICF is serious about creating equitable opportunity for everyone in Central Indiana to reach their full potential, and we know race plays a profound role in access to opportunity. Becoming an anti-racist organization and building lasting impact starts with open, honest dialogue, and that’s what CICF has been working on internally for the past two years. In this episode of For Good, four staff members open up about their personal and professional journeys to understanding systemic racism and how the foundation is continuously learning and preparing for the work ahead.

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Transcript of episode available below.

WHO YOU’RE LISTENING TO

* Tamara Winfrey-Harris – vice-president of community leadership & effective philanthropy at CICF

* Pamela Ross –vice-president of opportunity, equity & inclusion at CICF

* Jeanie Andes –director of human resources at CICF

* Ben Snyder  –manager of marketing & communications at CICF

DISCOVER MORE

* Undoing Racism with The People’s Institute for Change and hosted by Child Advocates

* Implicit bias training with the Peace Learning Center

* “White Like Me” – a documentary by author Tim Wise available on YouTube

* Read more about CICF’s new mission from Brian Payne

You’re listening to, For Good. Central Indiana Community Foundation’s podcast highlighting stories about passion, purpose and progress in Central Indiana. At CICF we believe in creating a community where everyone can reach their full potential—no matter their place, race or identity. This is our community and these are your stories.

TAMARA: I’m Tamara Winfrey Harris, vice president for community leadership and effective philanthropy at Central Indiana Community Foundation. And I am here today at one of my favorite spots. We’re at the Coat Check Coffee at the Athenaeum on Mass Ave. So, I’m with several of my colleagues from CICF and we want to give you a window on a really interesting experience that we’ve been having for almost two years now. As you may have heard, our foundation’s new mission is to make this a community where every individual has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential, no matter their place, race or identity.

And it means we’ve been on a really interesting journey both organizationally as well as professionally. And we want to take some time to talk about it with each other today. So before we dive into the good stuff, can everyone introduce themselves and kind of tell the audience what you do at CICF? Why don’t we start with Ben who is the official voice of For Good?

BEN: Hello. I am Ben Snyder and I am the marketing and communications manager here at CICF.

JEANIE: Hi, this is Jeanie Andes and I’m the director of human resources.

PAMELA: Hello, I’m Pamela Ross. I’m the vice president of opportunity, equity and inclusion.

TAMARA: So, I was thinking maybe we should start at the very beginning. One of the first things that I experienced when I came to CICF in 2016 was a two-day workshop called undoing racism pu...