How to Be an Ally 101

Goals

Discussion

Earning money and providing jobs. How is it a social justice act?
Working with things as they are rather than how you think they should be
"There is no clean money"
How do you know that you are really serving the goals of people you're working for / with
This comes up a lot around pricing and estimating
Sustainability of service provider
Where money comes from to pay us makes a big difference. If it's a big foundation or donors.
- Am I removing money from the community? Am I being neutral? Am I putting value into a community?
What does it mean to be a true partner with an organization?
How do you measure whether you are adding value?
Gentrifying issues
Declaration of intention rather than just anti- discrimination / racism / etc
Actually listening enough to know what an organizations core goals are and evaluating a project against that instead us simply a single projects goals
It is possible to make change

Practices

Don't bury your head in the sand about how much people are paying you. What value are you giving them? Is it worth it for them?
Acknowledge power dynamics
These are the things beyond financial interest that we care about when dealing with clients
Ask questions even if they make you uncomfortable

Report Back

Remember why we're doing this and who for
Serving social justice orgs vs BEING a social justice org
Combating our structural privilege as web devs
- Am I removing money from a community? Am I being neutral? Am I putting value into a community?
- How else to measure effectiveness
Actually listening enough to know what an organizations core goals are and evaluating a project against that instead us simply a single projects goals

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