• Affinity Group: A bringing together of people who have an identifier in common, e.g. race, gender, religion, family status, etc. Affinity groups are for individuals who identify as members of the group and can speak to the experience of being a member of the group from the “I” perspective.
• Alliance Group: a bringing together of people who have a common commitment to an identifier group, e.g. race, gender, religion, family status, etc. Alliance groups are for individuals who identify as members of the group and/or as people who support and stand in solidarity with that group.
• Ally: Someone who supports a group other than one’s own (in terms of multiple identities such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.). 

• • An ally acknowledges oppression and actively commits to reducing their own complicity, investing in strengthening their own knowledge and awareness of oppression.
• Anti-bias Education: Anti-bias education is an approach to teaching and learning designed to increase understanding of differences and their value to a respectful and civil society and to actively challenge bias, stereotyping and all forms of discrimination in schools and communities.
• Anti-racism: Conscious and intentional actions, policies, or practices of actively opposing systemic racism at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels.
• BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
• Cultural Responsiveness: The application of a defined set of values, principles, skills, attitudes, policies, and behaviors that enable individuals and groups to work effectively across cultures. 

• • Cultural responsiveness is a developmental process (and continuum) that evolves over time for both individuals and organizations. It is defined as having the capacity to:
    • Value diversity
    • Conduct an assessment of self
    • Manage the dynamics of difference
    • Acquire and apply cultural knowledge
    • Adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of the communities in which one lives and works.

• Diversity: The presence, acceptance, and appreciation of varied cultures.  The concept of diversity embraces the wide range of human characteristics used to mark or identify individual and group identities. These characteristics include, but are not limited to, ethnicity, race, national origin, age, personality, sexual orientation, gender, class, religion, ability, and linguistic preferences. 
  • Diversity is a term used as shorthand for visible and quantifiable statuses, but diversity of thought and ways of knowing, being, and doing are also understood as natural, valued, and desired state -  the presence of which benefits organizations, workplaces, and society.

• Equity: A condition that balances two dimensions: fairness and inclusion. As a function of fairness, equity implies ensuring that people have what they need to participate in school life and reach their full potential. Equitable treatment involves eliminating barriers that prevent the full participation of all individuals. As a function of inclusion, equity ensures that essential educational programs, services, activities, and technologies are accessible to all. 
  • Equity is not equality; it is the expression of justice, ethics, multi-partiality, and the absence of discrimination.
• Ethnicity: A social construct that divides people into groups based on characteristics such as a shared sense of group identity, values, culture, language, history, ancestry and geography.
• Gender: Socially constructed categories of masculinity and manhood, femininity and womanhood that go beyond one’s reproductive functions.  Gender is distinct from one’s sexual orientation. 
• Gender expression: This is the way we show our gender to the world around us through expressions such as clothing, hairstyles, mannerisms, etc.
• Gender identity: A person’s internal sense of themselves as a specific gender.  A cisgender person has a gender identity consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth.  A transgender person has a gender identity that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender, however, is a spectrum and is not limited to just two possibilities. A person may have a non-binary gender identity meaning they do not identify strictly as a boy or a girl.
• Implicit bias: The attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control.  Everyone is susceptible to implicit biases.
• Inclusivity/Inclusiveness: Encompassing all; taking every individual’s experience and identity into account and creating conditions where all feel accepted, safe, empowered, supported, and affirmed. An inclusive school or organization expands its sense of community to include all, cultivating belonging and giving all an equal voice. 

• • Inclusivity also promotes and enacts the sharing of power and recognition of interdependence, where authorizing individuals and community members share responsibility for expressing core values and maintaining respect for differences in the spirit of care and cooperation.
• Microaggressions: Microaggressions are subtle words, cues, and/or behaviors that insult, invalidate, or exclude traditionally marginalized group members. The long-term effect of microaggressions can have a significant negative effect on one’s health.
• Multiculturalism: The presence of many distinctive cultures and the presentation of cultural components (such as language, values, religion, race, communication styles, etc.) in a given setting. 

• • Multiculturalism promotes the understanding of, and respect for cultural differences, and celebrates them as a source of community strength.
  • Multiculturalism is also defined as a set of programs, policies, and practices that enable and maximize the benefits of diversity in a school community or organization.
• Privilege: Systemic favoring, enriching, valuing, validating, and including certain social identities over others. Individuals cannot “opt out” of systems of privilege; rather these systems are inherent to the society in which we live.
• Race: A social construct that divides people into groups based on factors such as physical appearance, ancestry, culture, history, etc.; a social, historical and political classification system.
• Racism: A system of advantage based on race. This advantage occurs at the individual, cultural and institutional levels.  Racism can also be defined as prejudice plus power.
• Social class (as in upper class, middle class, working class): Refers to people’s socio-economic status, based on factors such as wealth, occupation, education, income, etc.

Community Partnerships