The Opening Doors Institute Retreat Workshop

Opening Doors was an incredible experience for me personally and professionally. Not only did it encourage me to ‘go deeper’ in my own personal development, it provided me with a new skill set/understanding as it relates to my work as a student affairs professional. Since the experience, I have found that I am better suited in my role as a Director. I find myself using the skills/insight I learned to significantly support our Division’s priority of Diversity and Inclusion. I highly recommend participation in the workshop if you are interested in understanding your personal feelings and experiences so that you might more effectively facilitate change in your various environments. – Karen M Podsiadly, Director, Dept. of Community Development, The College at Brockport

About The Workshop

The Opening Doors Institute Workshop is all inclusive, including two nights of lodging, seven meals, facilitation and participant resources.

This foundational workshop introduces a framework for change that examines the dynamics of power, privilege and difference at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and societal level.  Through this framework, workshop learners engage in a process of introspection, reflection and facilitated dialogue to examine and identify how they can use their inherent personal power and spheres of influence to create more just and equitable systems.

Through pre-workshop readings, exploration of personal narrative, discussions, and interactive exercises, participants will:

• Develop a deeper understanding of diversity by identifying and learning more about their own identity groups.

• Integrate a framework and common language for addressing issues of power, privilege, and difference. 

• Examine how institutional and individual practices maintain inequities among people and prevent us from achieving our full potential

•  Engage in a process of building a community of practice committed to identifying and implementing practical strategies for creating collective change that results in greater equity and justice across differences.

• Acknowledge and celebrate the triumphs and contributions of historically underrepresented groups by learning about  hidden histories/figures – Historical Snapshot

• Learn how to employ the solidarity dividend – working together for change that benefits all of us.