How to Consult & Engage with Groups from Marginalized Identities

Before the consultation or community engagement, learn about the histories and realities of the marginalized group(s) you are consulting with. History often informs current-day interactions, especially within institutions such as higher education. Continue to question and challenge your own assumptions and biases. Understanding historical and current barriers, including barriers to participating in consultations, will aid in creating a trauma-informed environment and provide a more comprehensive understanding of where the participants are coming from. Engaging in preconsultation learning is a step towards beginning to create a safe(r) space for folks. 

In a study with racialized students at the University of British Columbia, “students described various university programmes or events geared towards racial or cultural diversity as inauthentic, an act to make the university look good, mandated but not truly internalized by faculty and staff, fragmented, and of little long-term impact” (Caxaj et al., 2021, p. 514). While there may be good intentions behind consultations or community engagements, be weary of performative activism. Ask yourself what your intentions are for including specific individuals within the process. Historically and currently, trust has been fragmented between marginalized groups and academia. A pivotal step to building authentic consultation processes is working towards building trust.  

Consultations should not exist as one-time conversations – they should be intentional and continuous processes that work towards building trust. Furthermore, early engagement is critical, and the process of building trust should not be rushed. It is important to build trust and genuine relationships with marginalized campus community members outside of the context of consultation (University Relations, n.d.). Only reaching out to these groups when something is needed can feel extractive and disingenuous. Building trust can look like attending events, engaging in learning opportunities, involving the community in your work, etc.  

When building trust with marginalized communities, it is important to keep in mind historical harms that might have hindered trust with academic institutions. In some cases, trust must be built from the existence of mistrust.

When consulting with marginalized groups, it is important to consider your own positionality. Furthermore, consider how your intersectional identities and access to power and privilege may impact your interactions within said consultation. Specifically, be aware of how power dynamics and systems of oppression might influence consultation engagement (Harvard Diversity Inclusion & Belonging, n.d.), as power imbalances can sometimes make people reluctant to fully contribute their ideas, experiences, or concerns.

For example, if you are a staff or faculty member working with students, think about how you may have greater access to institutional power than the students you are working with. This power imbalance may impact how students interact with you. Furthermore, when considering intersectionality, this power imbalance can be exacerbated if the students are members of marginalized group(s) that you are not.  

When planning the consultation or community engagement, ask yourself: How can power imbalances be mitigated so everyone feels safe to authentically share and contribute?

Additionally, when crafting the consultation questions, be aware of how your biases are showing up. Consultation questions should provide space for the participants to answer freely and should not be worded in a way that only allows them to confirm the expectations of the consultants. When developing the consultation questions and planning the consultation space, prioritize creating a space where participants have the agency and flexibility to show up as they need and to respond to the questions in a way that makes them feel safe. Before the consultation, consider asking participants if there is anything they need or would prefer to have that would encourage their authentic participation, and be prepared to accommodate to these needs if they are identified. Participants should not fear that answering in a specific way may bring punishment or punitive actions against them.  

It is important to note that it is normal to experience evaluation threat, such as feelings of stress and anxiety, when you sense that you may be judged as inflicting harm (racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.) because you are not a part of the identity group that you are consulting/engaging with (Buchanan & Goff, 2020). Rather than avoiding these feelings by shutting down and avoiding these conversations, acknowledge that these feelings are normal and individually sit with and unpack them (Buchanan & Goff, 2020).  

To learn about positionality, privilege, and bias, review the EDI-R Office’s Introduction to Equity PowerPoint Presentation. 

The location and timing of the consultation or community engagement may vary depending on the group of participants. Consider the participants’ commitments outside their role within the University and how that may impact their availability. For example, individuals may have family commitments, additional jobs, etc. Do not assume what participants’ availability looks like, but | 5 rather, collectively find a time and location that works for all parties involved. Furthermore, consultations or community engagements may have to take place outside of work hours.  

If the consultation is to take place in-person, you may consider alternative settings aside from the typical workplace, while being mindful of accessibility. For some individuals, a formal workplace setting may hinder full participation due to the power dynamics they may associate with said spaces. Be flexible and meet the participants where they are at. Some examples include:

• Coffee or lunch chats
• Outdoor meetings or walks  
• Circle process

While in-person consultations are more effective for relationship-building, online engagement may be more accessible to some individuals. If the consultation is to take place online, ensure the following:  

• Participants are familiar with the technology being used.  
• Participants have access to stable internet connectivity and technology to participate fully.

For a consultation or community engagement process to be equitable, it must be accessible. This means prioritizing accessibility throughout the entire process, from the planning stages.  

Sometimes, consultation or community engagement formats are not accessible to all, resulting in a participation gap. Consider multiple options for individuals who want to provide feedback and engage in the consultation or community engagement process. Some examples include:  

• Large or small group meetings  
• One-on-one chats
• Email submissions  
• Online forms  

For live consultations, whether in-person or online, provide a statement in the consultation invitation or registration, inviting participants to request accommodations if needed. It is important to ask participants for individual accessibility needs and avoid making assumptions. There is also much importance in sending out an agenda ahead of time. This early provision of the agenda respects participants' time and allows them to prepare their thoughts, making them feel prepared and respected.  

Allow the individuals you are consulting with to self-identify. Do not assume that the participants are part of any identity group, including their race, gender, etc. If the consultation or community engagement is live, whether in-person or online, provide space for participants to share their pronouns during introductions if they choose to do so (Harvard Diversity Inclusion & Belonging, n.d.). As a consultation facilitator, you can lead by example by introducing yourself to the participants with your name and pronouns.  

Remember that just because an individual is from a specific identity group does not mean that their opinion represents the entire identity group (Student Counselling, Health & Wellbeing, n.d.). Furthermore, people with the same identity may have diverse perspectives on issues (Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 2020). Remember to take an intersectional approach and engage with multiple different perspectives. This can be done by avoiding asking questions that assume or imply that participants share a common opinion (Griffith et al., 2019), as well as by asking open-ended questions.

It is crucial to be trauma-informed when conducting a consultation or community engagement with marginalized groups. A trauma-informed consultation or community engagement process will recognize and acknowledge the role that trauma may play in the participants’ lives (Buffalo Center for Social Research, n.d.).  

Experiencing identity-based harm can be traumatic. Additionally, trauma can be passed down through generations through what is called intergenerational trauma (APA Dictionary of Psychology, 2023). Certain consultation topics can potentially re-traumatize participants and/or trigger strong emotional reactions (Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 2020). Re-traumatization occurs when an environment or situation resembles an individual’s trauma in some shape or form, triggering reactions associated with the original trauma (Buffalo Center for Social Research, n.d.).  

For example, being trauma-informed during a consultation may look like creating space for a twoway conversation instead of direct questioning, which may feel more like an interrogation for the participants, leading to re-traumatization.

For more information, read this article on Trauma-informed pedagogies in higher education written by Kate Hargreaves (2023).  

On this note, consider providing a wellness space for participants to access during/after the consultation, where they can reflect or seek support (Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 2020). Additionally, a list of mental health and wellness supports relevant to the groups being consulted should be provided (Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 2020).  

York University’s Student Counselling, Health & Well-being offers recommendations and resources for Coping with Race Related Stress. 

Similar to trust, power and positionality are other factors that must be considered both before and during the consultation or community engagement. Again, during the process, be aware of power dynamics in space.  

For example, unequal power dynamics may result in some participants needing more time to respond to questions or prompts due to a fear of facing consequences for speaking up about experiences of harm (Student Counselling, Health & Well-being, n.d.). As a result, ensure space is held for participants to gather their thoughts and contribute to the consultation process (Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 2020).  

Allowing participants to show up as their authentic selves in the consultation or community engagement space is very important. Recall the characteristics of white supremacy culture from earlier in this guideline. Moving away from upholding white supremacy culture allows marginalized folks to increasingly be and show up as themselves.