Welcome to the resources page!
Culture Change Roadmap: A Racial Equity Journey Guide
We are creating antiracist culture and equitable business development in Portland, Oregon! The Culture Change Roadmap is a free resource co-created through collaborative research with local businesses and a team of equity practitioners including Michelle Helman Consulting, Inner Work, OuterPlay, Lara Media and Empress Rules in partnership with Prosper Portland and the Portland Means Progress initiative. You can click on the image to access the Roadmap. |
Black Lives Matter
- Amplify RJ's Restorative Justice reading list on abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization
- BlackFeminisms Reading Resources by and about Black women - by Dr. Melissa C. Brown
- BlackPast - References on African American history and the history of more than one billion people of African ancestry around the world.
- 13th - Film by Ava DuVernay – free on YouTube courtesy of Netflix
- EJI: Equal Justice Initiative - racial justice museum, memorial and more
Indigeneity and Decolonization
|
|
Land Acknowledgement as a 1st step

Use this interactive map to learn more about the Native Land you are living on. I recognize and respect of the Clackamas, Chinook, and Cowlitz peoples (past, present, and emerging), the traditional stewards of the land in the Portland neighborhood I am privileged to call home. I also acknowledge and honor the predominantly Black and African labor on which the United States has built and continues to build and spread its economic prosperity which feeds the system of inequity and injustice.
white Allyship and Accomplices, and more!
- Resources for white Allies - Dismantle Collective
- Teaching & Learning tools - Teaching Tolerance
- Racial Literacy - works by Dr. Stevenson, Brandeis University
- Racialized Trauma - Resmaa Menakem
- A Different Asian-American Timeline - ChangeLab
- The Ten Stages of Genocide - Genocide Watch
LGBTQIA2+
- LGBTQ Justice - Multnomah County Resource List
- More coming soon!
Toolkits & Guides
- Palestine Action Toolkit - Palestinian Feminist Collective
- Oppressive Language List (what to not say and what to say!): from the Prevention, Advocacy and Resource Center at Brandeis University
- Disability Language Guide - written by Labib Rahman and Reviewed by the Stanford Disability Initiative Board
Connect & Co-Create: Facilitation Tips and Resources for Collaborative Imagining

How can dialogue facilitation, mediation and conflict transformation processes move beyond settler-created themes of neutrality toward co-liberation? In this workshop, Connect & Co-Create!, Michelle facilitated a space that provided the opportunity for participants to connect via our shared humanity through play, curiosity, and imagination. Check out the file below to learn more and explore tips, tools and resources:

oma_2021_connect_and_co-create_helman.pdf |
Racial Justice Report 2020 - Michelle was a participant contributor
|
News Sources
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning from the Inside-Out

Listen to Michelle's M&E Thursday Talk with DM&E for Peace and Search for Common Ground. About the webinar:
Participatory evaluation, development, and peacebuilding methods aim to deconstruct top-down approaches by integrating inclusive, bottom-up practice which can unintentionally reinforce asymmetrical power dynamics.
In this webinar, I addressed how applying ‘inside-out’ evaluation tools in collaborative monitoring, evaluation, and learning (ME&L) practice can transform this obstacle into opportunity. I also encouraged participants to examine, engage with, and re-imagine their own tools and practices. During the presentation, I offered opportunities to explore how, together, we can co-create definitions of commonly used vocabulary, check our assumptions, and ground theory in lived experience to design and integrate collaborative evaluation tools.
On Empathy

Brené Brown's work has roots in rigorous, scientific research utilizing emergent theory. Her 2013 Ted Talk on the Power of Vulnerability launched her career to a new level. This short (3 minute) video is an excellent resource that explains the difference between empathy and sympathy. Click on the image to watch the video on Youtube.