Exploring Allyship Opportunity

DisruptOT is an organization founded within the international occupational therapy community that aims to challenge the status quo, disrupt oppressive systems, and build community. They host webinars, discussions, and fundraisers that amplify the voices and experiences of overlooked members in this community. Late last year, Mary initiated and built lab member consensus for donating $200, through matched contributions and reallocation of existing funds earmarked for our lab retreat, to sponsor their efforts to compensate their speakers.

CPERL recognizes that reallocating existing resources to compensate colleagues for their effort is an important first step towards behaving in ways that align with our stated intention - it is an act that demonstrates our care in cultivating inclusive excellence in our profession. It also runs complementary to several action steps in our lab's plan. Our act to help DisruptOT compensate their labor directly aligns with our action step of opening spaces to hold courageous conversations about racism in academia. We support speakers who educate listeners on creating an antiracist profession as we have compensated our members for their time and participation in courageous conversations to build an antiracist lab. Both ways intentionally empower minoritized members by giving them the opportunity to be compensated for their work.

DisruptOT has immediately reciprocated, by generously promoting us and personally inviting us to their events and welcoming our interest to brainstorm and propose strategies for promoting this reciprocity within their scheduled events. We are each tasked to share this responsibility for facilitating this work, beginning with our upcoming (albeit rescheduled) lab retreat.