This week I mostly focused on the operations manual for Zora’s House. The operations manual is a guide for Zora’s House volunteers on what their work entails in the space and with the people who use it. This document is more dated compared to the employee handbook, but the revision process is going a lot easier compared to the employee handbook, since the revision process for the handbook brought out a lot of things that I could apply towards revising the operations manual. 

For the past few weeks, my supervisor and I were also collecting frequently asked questions from the volunteers to incorporate into the manual so that the document would be as useful as possible for its intended audience. The questions that stood out to me the most were about whether non-women of color are allowed in the space. When I first saw these questions, I thought that since Zora’s House is a space specifically for women of color, why would non-women of color be allowed to be a part of it, or would even want to be in the space? During my time in Zora’s House and in college when I was running a group for women of color, I have seen how important these types of spaces are for the communities they are serving, and how good it feels for people to have a space to call their own. 

However, Zora’s House’s policy on non-women of color accessing the space is the following: 

“Non-women of color are allowed to be in Zora’s House. However, as an organization that centers women of color, all those who do not identify should be aware and comfortable operating as guests within a space that centers women of color” (Zora’s House Operations Manual FAQs). 

I thought this statement was interesting, because it embodies the mission and values of the organization very well. Zora’s House is not interested in “excluding” people from their space, but rather their work is focused on helping women of color thrive and create spaces where their needs are validated and their work is celebrated; focusing on who’s “out” doesn’t really help much in advancing the goals of the organization. This reminds me of our discussions throughout our learning sessions about a “deficit mindset” and how we need to move past that way of thinking. Here, Zora’s House is pushing against that by showing that you can center a group’s needs and create an overall positive environment for everyone. This is just one instance (out of many) of how I’ve seen Zora’s House put into practice what we’ve discussed in our learning sessions about changing our way of thinking around helping others and being servants to our communities. I am grateful for having the chance to be a part of this organization for the summer, and to help them during this exciting period of growth and transition for them.