Center Ethics

Our commitments to collective self-care also extend to creating conditions for all to thrive. Centering our ethics (what guides our actions) by exploring points of connection in our values, intentions, and commitments can serve as a foundation for this work. These points of connection form a sense of collective ethic that brings and holds us together.

It is useful to map out collective ethics with a team so it can foster commitment to these shared values.1 Some key questions we can ask are:

  • What values drew us to this work? What ways of working do I value and can’t work without?

  • What is our history and relationship to these values? Who taught them to us?

  • How have these values shown up in our work? What values come alive when we work with the people we serve and support?

  • Which values do we share and hold collectively?

  • How can we shape our work and activities to make sure we hold on to these values?

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky invites us to a shared ethic of aspiring to do no harm; and that means working to dismantle systems of oppression throughout one's community and in society by:2

  • looking at a larger context of how trauma is inflicted,

  • on many different levels of people’s lives: society, communities, organizations, movements and homes, and can become cumulative.

It is in enacting our ethics that they become more visible and help to sustain us in the work.3

Address issues of power and privilege

To enact an ethical stance, we can begin by reflecting on the power and privilege we hold in this work. These privileges are often hidden or made invisible and can lead to an unintended reinforcement of inequity and harm.4 By recognizing power and privilege we can come together as allies to work towards a more just society.

We can start by asking ourselves: 

  • How can we create spaces for reflection, conversations and be accountable to power and privilege? 

  • How can we work to interrupt power and privilege? How do we stand up to power in a useful way? How do we engage in the collective work of dismantling oppression? 

Let’s explore some common definitions for a couple terms first before we move forward. Click here to access a handout. 

Power and privilege combine to either oppress or give advantages to certain groups of people. Explore an interactive exercise on power and privilege below.  

Dismantling oppression starts with:

  1. Learning about oppression, especially by listening to those who are affected most.

  2. Reflecting on and challenging one’s own implicit (and explicit) bias.

  3. Taking collective action in solidarity. 

Explore the concepts of implicit bias in the videos below.

Vikki Reynolds shares: Our greater purpose is to deliver a just society, not to show up as allies, because our access to power makes that possible. Ally work requires humility and a resistance to righteousness, alongside the skill and moral courage required to name abuses of power from people within the same groups allies belong to.5

This means that we are both deeply learning and actively stepping in to do the work of addressing racism and bias. 

Click here for an exercise on addressing power and privilege.

 

Sources:

  1. Vikki Reynolds (2011). Resisting Burnout With Justice-Doing. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 4, pp. 27-45.

  2.  Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, Caring for Yourself Means Changing the System. BK Magazine Social Change. https://www.bkconnection.com/bkblog/laura-van-dernoot-lipsky/caring-for-yourself-means-changing-the-system

  3. Vikki Reynolds (2012) An Ethical Stance for Justice-Doing in Community Work and Therapy. Journal of Systemic Therapies, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2012, pp. 18–33 https://vikkireynoldsdotca.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/reynoldsandpolancoethicsstanceforjusticedoing2012jst.pdf

  4. Ibid

  5. Vikki Reynolds (2013) Leaning In” as Imperfect Allies in Community Work. Narrative and Conflict: Explorations of theory and practice. Volume 1, Issue 1. https://journals.gmu.edu/index.php/NandC/article/view/430/364