Community Resources

Workshops and Training

The Midland County Inclusion Alliance regularly offers workshops and opportunities for learning and conversation on a variety of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access topics.

FREE EVENTS & VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS

Inclusive Bridge-Building 101 Workshop Series

How can we keep building a deeply inclusive community during these times of unrest and uncertainty? How do we more genuinely connect with neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family who may see the world differently? Join the Midland County Inclusion Alliance for a free, four-workshop series in 2025 that will help us to build bridges and strengthen relationships in ways we might not have thought possible.

There is no required reading to participate. However, we invite you to check out the book mentioned for each workshop, and we have some other media links available.

Thanks to community partner Creative 360 for hosting our spring workshops! Look for more events in September and November 2025.

Connection Through Curiosity
Tuesday, March 18 | 6:00-7:30pm
Creative 360, 5501 Jefferson Ave

Curiosity is a critical tool for building trust when we’re living in information silos, with the chatter about each other eclipsing the actual conversations we’re having with each other. We’ll be covering elements from a book by Mónica Guzmán called I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. How can we use her tools to navigate our differences more productively, whether it’s a conversation with a neighbor or a debate across political parties? Join us to learn how the gulfs between us might not be as vast as we think they are.

Last year, Mónica Guzmán visited Midland for a fireside chat co-sponsored by Delta College and Dow, in which she shared her wisdom with a mid-Michigan audience. Feel free to check out the video of it before our workshop!

Register now

How to Call In, Instead of Call Out
Wednesday May 21 | 6:00-7:30pm
Creative 360, 5501 Jefferson Ave

Have we ever tried to confront someone, only to have the attempt go completely off the rails? A key to productive engagement is to lower the temperature in the room and get our egos to relax, a tall order but one that can be helped by Loretta Ross’s technique of “calling in.” We’ll be discussing content from her new book, called Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. Ross has lots of wisdom to impart as a five-decade champion for civil rights, though some of her practical tools are simpler than you might expect!

Apart from her book, we recommend this hour-long podcast conversation with Dan Harris, titled “How to Call People In (Instead of Calling Them Out).”

MIDLAND PANEL ON INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE: VIRTUAL LUNCH CONVERSATION

In this hour-long session in November 2023, we explored different types of microaggressions and how best to respond to them, then heard from three members of our community.  Kip Gilbert, Smallwood Holoman, and Bart Maxon shared their own experiences with language and inclusivity from a variety of vantage points.  This workshop was hosted by the Midland County Inclusion Alliance and moderated by Mike Vagnini.

Local and National Resources

Great Lakes Bay Pride
Great Lakes Bay Pride is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization on a mission to provide inclusive sexual orientation and gender identity/expression (SOGIE) education, advocacy, networking, and resources to individuals and organizations in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Great Lakes Bay Pride is the region’s LGBTQ+ resource group with a coverage area spanning the counties of Saginaw, Bay, Midland, Clare, Isabella, Tuscola, and beyond.

Disability Network of Mid Michigan

Leading the charge to change societal attitudes about people with disabilities and providing assistance to people with disabilities, their families, and the community

Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Multicultural Literature Resources

Association of Performing Arts Professionals
Toolkit of a broad range of information from diverse groups, organizations, authors and sources who may be studying and addressing -racial equity, decolonization, cultural justice, gender and other critical issues; useful for variety of industries.

How to Talk Honestly With Children About Racism
Suggestions and resources from PBS Kids

125 Black-Owned Bookstores in America
A state-by-state list from Oprah Magazine

MCIC K-12 Book List
A children’s book list compiled by Midland Public School teachers of books supporting diversity equity, and inclusion. Download the PDF.

Anti-Racist Curriculum: How to Talk to Your Kids About Black History
Resource and articles from Parents Magazine