People's Institute for Survival and Beyond

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People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB)
AbbreviationPISAB
Formation1980
Founder Ronald Chisom and James Norman Dunn
PurposeAddressing racism, poverty and social injustices
HeadquartersNew Orleans, Louisiana
Location
  • United States
Website pisab.org

The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB) is a non-profit organization that provides education and training to individuals, communities and organizations on issues related to systemic racism and social and human justice. [1] [2] It was founded in 1980 by civil and human rights activists and scholars Ronald Chisom and James Norman Dunn. [2] [3] [4] It is based in New Orleans, Louisiana with several regional organizing hubs across the country. More than two million people completed PISAB's Undoing Racism and Community Organizing workshops. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Programs and initiatives

Undoing Racism

The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond offers an Undoing Racism workshop that that seeks to increase people's understanding of systemic and institutionalized racism in our society. [8] [9] [10] The program uses a multi-dimensional approach that incorporates historical analysis, group participation, and community organizing strategies. [11] [12] Participants in the workshops engage in dialogue and discussions that are designed to support critical thinking, challenge their assumptions about race, privilege, and power. [13] [14] [15] The workshop is designed to be accessible to a broad range of individuals, organizers and organizations, including community groups, non-profits, government agencies, and businesses. [16] [17] It has been implemented in a variety of settings, including schools, neighborhood associations, hospitals, and social and service agencies. [17] [18] [19]

The workshops have been in different research studies that in some cases, required the participants to attend PISAB's Undoing Racism workshops;

Article publishedPublishing JournalYear of publishingRelationship with PISAB
Antiracism Expanding Social Work Education: A Qualitative Analysis of the Undoing Racism Workshop Experience Journal of Social Work Education 2018 [20] The study evaluated how student participants felt after attending the Undoing racism workshop. [20]
Participatory and Action Research Within and Beyond the academy: Contesting Racism through Decolonial Praxis and Teaching "Against the Grain" American Journal of Community Psychology 2018 [21] The participants attended a two and half days Undoing racism work that was organized by PISAB prior to taking the survey. [21]
The Art and Science of Integrating Undoing Racism with CBPR: Challenges of Pursuing NIH Funding to Investigate Cancer Care and Racial Equity Journal of Urban Health 2006 [22] The study explored how the principles of community participatory studies can be integrated with the processes of undoing racism program. [22]

People's Institute Youth Agenda

An initiative of PISAB through which young people and community organizers committed to understanding the current issues that face society come together to positively contribute to their communities and are educated and recruited to reach other young people who organize [23] [24] was started in 1996 by an intergenerational group of veteran organizers and young activists, tailored to those aged 12 to 18. [25]

European descent

This is an initiative that is specifically designed for individuals of European descent who are interested in working towards racial justice and equity. This anti-racism organizing collective seeks to address the ways in which white privilege and racism operate in our society, to strengthen the number of white people organizing for racial justice, and to empower participants to take action to dismantle racism. [26] [27] [28]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental racism</span> Environmental injustice that occurs within a racialized context

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental justice</span> Social movement

Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed.

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Societal racism is a type of racism based on a set of institutional, historical, cultural and interpersonal practices within a society that places one or more social or ethnic groups in a better position to succeed and disadvantages other groups so that disparities develop between the groups. Societal racism has also been called structural racism, because, according to Carl E. James, society is structured in a way that excludes substantial numbers of people from minority backgrounds from taking part in social institutions. Societal racism is sometimes referred to as systemic racism as well. Societal racism is a form of societal discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-racism</span> Beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism

Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions which are intended to create equal opportunities for all people on both an individual and a systemic level. As a philosophy, it can be engaged in by the acknowledgment of personal privileges, confronting acts as well as systems of racial discrimination and/or working to change personal racial biases. Major contemporary anti-racism efforts include the Black Lives Matter movement and workplace anti-racism.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin DiAngelo</span> American academic (born 1956)

Robin Jeanne DiAngelo is an American author working in the fields of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University and is currently an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington. She is known for her work pertaining to "white fragility", an expression she coined in 2011 and explored further in a 2018 book entitled White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.

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Collins O. Airhihenbuwa is a Beninese public health researcher. He is Director of the Global Research Against Non-communicable Disease (GRAND) Initiative and Professor of Health Management & Policy at Georgia State University.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Hardeman</span> American public health academic

Rachel Renee Hardeman is an American public health academic who is associate professor of Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She holds the inaugural Blue Cross Endowed Professorship in Health and Racial Equity. Her research considers how racism impacts health outcomes, particularly for the maternal health of African-Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tawana Petty</span>

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Ronald Chisom is an African American author, civil rights activist and community organizer who was involved in fighting for justice and equality for marginalized communities in the United States. He was a co-founder of People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. and a medical researcher at Louisiana State University Medical School. Born in 1941 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Chisom grew up in a segregated society that was affected by racism and discrimination.

References

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