Welcome to Equity in Action
We are a “community accountable” consulting firm. We believe that equity work is guided, owned, and developed together with communities who are affected by inequities and organizations who are authentically engaged in addressing the impacts of inequities.
Roxanne Felix-Mah & Ashima Sumaru-Jurf, Managing Partners of Equity in Action, have been working actively as consultants, facilitators, coaches, and organizational leaders who practice equity work. This experience has meant we have been learning from our colleagues and constantly engaging in knowledge circulation around equity topics for over 15 years each.
We developed Equity in Action in 2021 as a “vehicle” for equity work because we wanted to engage in “action” in partnership with others: equity is action, it is not a checkbox or a trend. We wanted shared ownership of the work with the community and to be contributors in contributing to real equity impacts. And we wanted the time to reflect, learn, and improve this practice.
We also know that actions that further equity are essential for achieving the vision, mission, and values of many non-profit, government, and corporate organizations who were developed to disrupt and address inequities. Equity is the “core business” of social impact organizations and not project work. We seek to be partners in moving towards these mandates.
Our vision:
Equity in Action builds a body of equity work as a shared resource for communities that:
Leads to systemic and organizational transformation
Is accountable to those that experience inequities
Many consulting firms would share here the logos of their most prestigious projects and clients to convince you of their expertise. This approach is inconsistent with our values and our vision. The quality of our work should be judged by those closest to communities who experience inequities. So in the spirit of an anti-oppressive approach, we support a shared and collectively defined standard of excellence rather than assuming superior qualifications are best defined those with power.
That said, we respect and understand that you would want to know our experience working in a certain sector or at a certain scope. Please ask us for a list of our clients or for direct references, and we would be pleased to provide this.
(We would like to acknowledge We All Count for modeling this fantastic approach).