life they not only turn around the lives for themselves but they go out in the community and do all mazing things every now and then we come across people who despite what they had a to face to hear more from elizabeth herself the work she has been doing for over two decades and really making a difference to bring communities together elizabeth welcome to the show thank early age of six years or i had a conviction in my spirit and my heart and that's something that has been a part of who i am and through the american continent of earth they have opportunity to serve and provide education provide people opportunities to be softer flecked they have to take a personal journey to think differently about who they are in the world how they see themselves and how they can look and see others absolutely i think in today's especially i'm talking about in an  because it's a step up to you to tell people who they are and to speak comfortable with you know our longest journey what i've found out is that people tend to  of our life experiences our world views is something that we can try to share it's our greatest asset it's not a liability and when we can transform our understanding of the verse in a way that  helps people value and respect who we are the way we are where we are compromise without having to adjust and to suit someone else's circumstance or situation so diverse that means all of those things  create new learning experiences for individuals to experience all learning we have opportunities to work with corporations with community organizations with young people designing curriculums and activities and workshops to help them better understand who they are who they are understanding their social identities the social construct in which we live in today our understand how the navigate through some of the difficulties and come out ahead come out being confident come out feeling it's ok to step outside of your comfort zone yes it's ok to explore things that are different or learn about someone who has a different life experiences in your all it's very important for us to do that and that's how i spend my time and it's not just a i think that the more people embrace diversity and understand that it's not as complicated we want to make it the easier we are to live together yes for some reason when people begin to explore their differences and learn to value them and not use them as deficit's to their lives they feel better about the person across from them they feel more confident about their journey and the next steps they want of say about whatever they encounter i think it's a very important point to me you know when  people who may look different or live differently or maybe dress or feel different or have different traditions and things i know this is a name really big and wide conversation so if we may i want to specially have you tell our viewers a little bit on the work that you're doing with corporations because of the diversity in a workplace has a very different meaning instead right that in where we understand i began to explore how these things influence and work together for our building more inclusive workplaces yes if that intersectionality of understanding that whatever happens outside the community can end up having there but if you will value and respect that explore their own learn about their you can see how that can translate them into a work place and make that person a strong leader in many in many ways and so i think that the work that we do is to try to bridge that gap of understanding around those intersectionality and allow people to show up and be of that excel file in ways that is productive for the company and it leads to greater working relationships and also create greater markets for the compan culture of cultural sensitivity or no or city or lack of diversity or understanding of it it can lead to and the negative side as well yeah absolutely and i think that's another part of what we try to do we try to get on the people to understand th places if you have a situation coming from your community i had a very similar situation turned out differently but i had a certain reaction to it and you had a different regular we bump heads but we don't know that part unless  layers back began to explore and ask those questions that's why it's so important because catholic allows us to understand what makes us different how it makes us different and then how do we move forward and understand that we can have  worldviews and perspectives that me baby very different but still work ever team bring both and also assets and those experiences to the table and we can do things that are greater and better for us absolutely and if you look at in having that understanding of other people may have different views than yours but you come as it is this type of training is really value of all the work you do and i'm sure that you c larder unique situations and examples anything that stands out that you would like to share you know one thing that stood out for me and i have to tell you i was working with a group of corporate executives and there was a gentleman who had a lot of guilt he was a white male is a white male and i was challenge with how he dealt with operation in society how he dealt with privilege and what that meant for him and one of the ways he expressed that he did that was to help underprivileged at risk kids and that was his outlet in his way of giving back or dealing with their guilt and i said to him let's think about those you g people that you're touching a lot what if they were not categorized as young people at risk what if you look at each one of them and consider them youth at promise and if they were has so much promise and what you were doing were teasing out the promise and helping them understand where they're giving them sponsorship and access to greed and things what a difference you can make in your own life and the way you see them and also how you understand your own influence in ways that i don't create for months well but they're they're there and they're necessary and i show up in a place where i am able to do what i do best use my expertise and my skills and my knowledge around th passion my passion help others in the process help myself i think i think that is very important you know when we are helping others some way we're helping ourselves like you said you know  this gentleman as he was doing helping youth has this as overcoming his gaillard and i think this conversation may have changed that guilt up to something completely different absolutely he didn't have to operate from a place of guilt he operated from a place of charity charity or love respect dignity humanity because now he looked at those individuals as if they were his own children in a way that he would offer them that life or that opportunity that he would offer to his children wow that's such an a beautiful example thanks for sharing yes yes so what do you see before we move on to another topic conversation i want to i want to stay here for the specially for the professional world because i as a professional had f it's kind of under the rug topic don't talk about it as much it's not is all politically correct term s and my interpretation as i interact with people is that human beings are who they are right so it's ok to be polite or politically correct but you have to knowledge what they are made are mirrors and many times the verse is not about being politically correct because we're dealing with humanity and we're dealing with life we're not it's not a politics game i agree but in a workplace there are some ludes rules and guidelines and i respect that but you know we have to respect human being first exam and i think the problem with rules and balance in him in corporations is they're not informed they're not influenced by the lens of diversity yes after time those policies and practices same in place with out the consideration of the value that diversity and inclusion to the workforce into the workplace so when you think about the many times the companies that i work with have to rethink their reimagine to match their their office spaces even the way they look they have to rethink area marriage and how they even utilize their employees and i think it increases have change in business word when it comes to understanding or worse it well you know what the significant difference in our the corporate sector in getting people to understand the value of diversity is in the money explained and when i say that people understand that if you understand people from different countries different markets different life experiences or worldviews they can become your clients if you value and appreciate and respect they can benefit from the services that you have to offer making their life better and your company grow they become great employees they become individuals that respect the business that you operate and it innovative they're doing things that people didn't even understand twenty five years ago ten years ago because of how rapidly things are changing so are when you look at the bottom line and you look at how money is being made when you limit your market if you don't explore an opportunity to work with people who are different and live differently but can have greater access to the same types of services or you can even change your service model as time change service models have to change absolutely you don't any of you know that criteria or you're not keeping up with the pace of things there's a possibility your business won't survive absolutely so if there is  large scale of zero or they are my customers they like my partner they're going to buy it anyway so there's not much emphasis lee that's not a guarantee because you have to have a relationship when people buy products there's a relationship there's an exchange of deals made worse and so when you have quality relationships with among your vendors or whoever you're trying to read if you know if you go to another country and you're not engaging in the same business practices or they feel whatever you they're all exactly and whatever you do may seem maybe untrustworthy or you may be doing something that is not traditional in their culture and heritage and could become offensive thank you that is problematic so you have to really embrace their differences and cultures and our talk about that in advance of ask the question of what is it that we need to do differently to accommodate your knee not how can my knees be better met because you give me your business but what is it i can do to accommodate your needs how what is our rock in relation need to look like who do we need to include and talk to so that we have a consistent sustainable relationship and i think those are the things that have to be taken consideration because you can have a quality product because that's what competition's all about everybody has a quality product but if you don't have a solid relationship that allows you or your customer to work with you in a way that they feel valued respected and their a given it's something that we don't even have to spend a whole lot of time arguing about but what we have to do is learn how to value appreciate and respect it let's talk about it on more of an interpersonal level on a community level what kind of initiatives the odd an individual can take what a community organization and take to create more collaboration with did the worst city among their own communities one of the things that people have to do first is define it you have to really take an assessment of all of your diversity what is it that makes of what is what is the combination of characteristics that make up your going to zation and make you diverse and make your diversity rich asset defined there explore that come to terms with that make sure everybody's aware of that that's the first that you have to first know who you are who you are what are who you are and how you live or what you learn and how you lead all of that is encompassing of your diversity ok one of the most common questions one of the most common questions that's asked like well have you taken time to exploded on heritage night let's talk about a little bit when do you think people have challenge going deep inside an understanding that what i think one of the reasons why is harder to go deep inside and explore your own heritage is cause we live within a system that doesn't value that type of exploration so if you live in a system or the van is in disadvantage and there are certain qualities or things that you benefit from and that you may be at a disadvantage because you are born into or you have it's much harder to value respect those qualities and characteristics and so what has to happen is there has to be a space and which everyone understands who they are and they don't use who they are what they come from or their back background to be a hindrance to their success and progress you can have all these external solid roots around who they are in the world how they see themselves or they've been living in denial and they have ignored other people struggle over people's own identities just you know cause such trauma and other people's lives to move and ignore and do other things and not appreciate individuals there to father that we need to become a little bit more sensitive to the human side of other people that we interact where and we have to be more sensitive to what happens when we don't respect differences and it doesn't matter where you hike on it or exactly it doesn't matter if you were born into a family that was wealthy or you were born into a family that was working poor if there are there also values around life are not respected that i can come from a place of not having a whole lot and still be successful so i can come from a place that has a whole lot and respect the fact that i have it but others need to be able to have access and i should not have laws and policies in place that deny them that opportunity so just for our viewers i want to just clarify that people can have different set of values absolutely but i think i think the problem is when we begin to try to separate our diversity we we can't simply when i show up as a listener i don't have just my social economic status my people package is connected to that my faith my gender my nationality everything that makes me who me who i am is connected is like a fabric that's where we are so tightly together that if you poor one thread it weakens it it changes the virus somewhat and i think that's how we have to look at it we have to understand that these things have intersections or interwoven and that they all make us who are but they they also have value they shape who we become and how we live our realities in life how we live our truth i want to  onus on a society level especially at this time that we're living through the you know cosmopolitan cultures the age of the social media and connectivity is much higher than  tips in that time and age how do you think the diversity is shaping its own goal i think that what has happened is because we have more accessibility  information we should be able to then learn more and are more open kind of way i think when it is misused well misinformation is put out when lives are spread when there are a lot of misrepresentations or no representation in the media and in these forums it causes voids where people have voids say ferragamo whatever they think should be there so whether it's true or not so in other words there's a risk of having so much information lack of information or incorrect information out there so there's a quite a bit of risk in u doesn't necessarily fit everyone's situation or circumstance so this is this is a way of creating this idea of stereotype threat and so every person is held up to the same standard in which the media has put out there has not created so that causes that friction and that is problematic for us but it is so much a part of starting with self and then moving outward that you cannot change systems and institutions without looking at those individuals because individuals make up these systems in a situation and the more they are informed are more aware and educated around things the better the situation the more inclusive the decision the more inclusive the part process is and inclusiveness is not just about everyone being around a table it's about leveraging the assets and the knowledge and skills i use these words over and over again the kind of get people understand that it is an asset is the knowledge and skills an expert in everything that people can offer them makes the difference and when it's valued and leveraged for greater success then that's where you have that center g to move forward that center to break down barriers so move beyond any challenges because you're able to work corporations and whatnot on a community level your cards on how much you see the need that there should be more dialogue there should be more  collaboration on social causes or or what our various communities together communities thrive when their individual groups thrive well in every community we have all different types of groups that exist you have mothers you have children you have fathers you have people who work in different sectors so there is always these different categories but when we come together for dialogue we come together to talk and have meaningful productive conversation around how we see the other is important a part of our work is doing that we have community forums we have panel discussion we bring in folks to share their knowledge and understanding to give people opportunities to ask questions all of those things are very central to our how we help to build and educate our community we have everything we need we need we have everything we need to love and appreciate and value each other it's all about utilize it in the most affected way and really understanding how important it is to respect each other i think i think that these are thief the foundations and the fundamentals i would love to have this ongoing conversations but unfortunately we have a limited time here on the show and i think there is a lot of opportunities to for people who are everyone wherever they are in their life in their professional ca provide new learnings around these issues are our work is not limited to just a corporate sector we work with young people so we work with early childhood educators so when we work with everyone and volunteering and supporting the wor attending events that we have all be beneficial we will provide the website if anyone wants to reach out and i really thank you so much for being on show i learned a lot and there's more to learn and i'm really interested until next time b