Lateral Violence in Tribal Organizations

My firm, Red Road Leadership Consulting, has been conducting training on lateral violence for Tribal and urban Indian organizations for the past 20 years. Lately there has been a lot more interest on this topic and over the next two months I will be doing five trainings on this very important issue.

Lateral violence is about the impact of all the oppression that continues to affect our organizations and it pits one group against an;ther. This may be Tribe against Tribal member, men versus women or same sex. full blood versus mix-blood, Christian versus Red Road, educated versus less educated, and class categories Some of the signs are communication breakdowns,,gossipping and malicious rumors, and sabotaging behaviors.

In the training I cover ways to prevent and address lateral violence. One is when you say it happening say something who can do something about it. Have training on the topic so staff know what it is and what they can do to be more proactive. Revise your policies and procedures to make sure they reflect what they should be in a healthy organization. Also, use talking circles to give staff an opportunity to share their feelings and to help unite their hearts and minds.

The training can be conducted in a one day or two day format. There are interactive exercises and case scenarios to help the participants learn how to deal with lateral violence. For more information on this topic feel free to contact my firm at redroadconsulting@gmail.com

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