Understanding Power, Privilege & Purpose: nside the Community Board’s EDI Training
If we are serious about shifting power, we have to talk honestly about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and culture. That’s exactly what the Community Board’s session with Rowena E. made space for.
Image “Reality, Equality, Equity, Liberation,” Interaction Institute for Social Change. Artist, Angus Maguire.
This session focused on helping board members reflect on their own power and privilege, and co-create the principles that will guide how they show up and make decisions together.
With the fund covering such a wide range of people, lived experiences, and identities across Brixton and Peckham, being intentional about EDI from the start is necessary.
The session created space to pause, reflect, and ask big questions:
How will the board make decisions fairly?
How will it stay accountable to the Brixton and Peckham community?
And how will board members work together in a way that’s brave, respectful, and open?
Unpacking Big Ideas
From there, we took a step back and unpacked some of the big concepts that often get thrown around in EDI spaces, terms like equality, equity, inclusion, oppression, discrimination, and power.
Too often, these words are used without clarity or context. So we broke them down and connected them to real-life scenarios, systems, histories, and lived experiences. We looked at how power operates at every level, from policies to personal interactions, and how privilege can shape the opportunities people do or don’t have access to.
A Powerful Moment: The Privilege Walk
One of the most eye-opening parts of the day was the Privilege Walk, a reflective activity that brought theory to life.
Led by Rowena, the Board responded to prompts like “Take a step forward if you grew up with two parents.” Each step (or pause) made visible how life circumstances shape our access to privilege and how differently we each start out in life.
“Shook my mind and opened my eyes.” - Irina, Community Board Member
It sparked honest conversations about intersectionality and reminded us that equity work isn’t a tick-box exercise, it's ongoing, personal but also collective. To do this work well, we must be courageous, careful and deeply committed.
Turning Reflection into Action
To close the session, the Board worked together to create a group agreement, a shared set of values and principles to guide how they’ll work together, challenge power (including their own), and stay accountable to the communities at the heart of this fund.
They committed to:
Respect
Appreciation
Understanding
Participation
Knowledge
This agreement set the tone for how the Board will continue to show up not just as individuals, but as a collective with clarity and care.
A huge thank you to one of our funders Impact on Urban Health for kindly hosting us.
If you’re interested in supporting the fund, or want to know more, drop us an email stpfund@cvr.community.