On November 29th, CommonWheels finished out a strong season of Open Shops and DIY Community Bike Repairs with a new community event called the Ally Skills Workshop: Combatting Sexism and Transphobia. The workshop was led by Kendra Albert and gave great information on guiding ways to intervene and support women and trans people when we notice sexism and transphobia. We broke into two groups and brainstormed ways to respond to scenarios that included examples of explicit and subtle sexism and transphobia.

The scenarios sparked great conversation and were a great entry point for developing the skill of allyship. The hearty/committed attendees who came out despite the rain participated with lots of energy. Thank you to Doug Johnson from the Boston Cyclists Union for lending a projector and Jackson Mann Community Center for providing the space!

Over at CommonWheels it was an exciting first event to spark some important discussion in Boston bike communities. The event was also helpful as we continue to think about and develop our efforts to create supportive and inclusive spaces for bikers. As a result of the workshop, we will start having name tags for bikers to write down their names and preferred pronouns at our Open Shops and other community programs. The name tags are one way to continue building a thoughtful environment and an opportunity for conversation and education around preferred pronouns! Please reach out to CommonWheels with any feedback, thoughts, questions about the training or ideas for building affirming spaces!