Why We Need Affinity Groups

Written by Sandra Olarte-Hayes, Director of Equity

Colors of Austin Counseling’s Collective Healing In Action (CHIA) Groups have finally launched. I am excited. I am relieved. An important part of what I was hired to do was to guide the creation of these groups. The process has taken longer than I expected…almost a year since I started, and yet I am grateful that we have been intentional in starting these groups and that we are finally here.

CHIA groups launched the first week in January and since my last post, most of our groups have now met twice. We know they will require consistency and time in order to build trust and safety. We are trying to balance these needs with an acknowledgement that our team is busy and everyone has a lot on their plates. These first few CHIA group sessions have focused on setting the stage…developing a set of norms and agreements for how we will be together and sharing fears, hopes, and expectations. There seem to be plenty of both. How often do we get to be in spaces with others who share a core aspect of our identity? For me, the answer is quite rarely…especially in this field. In these early groups, I have noticed both a bit of nervousness and also a sense of possibility in the participants.

Why is affinity work necessary?

When affinity groups are suggested, folks with power tend to get uncomfortable. Fear often shows up around what will be discussed since leadership is not there to monitor and regulate the dialogue. If staff start asking questions about their experiences as they relate to identity, what will they say? Does leadership really want to know? Will people start to feel more validated in their concerns? Will they say negative things about the leadership? I have had leaders in previous organizations tell me directly that they would not support my creating spaces for people of the same race to come together and talk about their experiences without other representatives from the organization present. I believe they were making this choice out of fear.

As you can imagine, it felt like a breath of fresh air to interview at Colors of Austin Counseling when I was quickly asked how I would go about creating affinity groups. It was so exciting to hear that the practice was already all in. We need to acknowledge that harm happens in the workplace; there is no point in pretending it doesn’t, and we need these spaces to help heal personally and as an organization.

My graduate program had very few other non-White students. I naturally gravitated towards the other students of color and this group became a space of support. It became a necessary space to vent and unpack frustrations with the program and the daily microaggressions we were experiencing. None of the experiences I had were intentional, I imagine, but they still happened. This informal space, with other students of color, became a place to strategize on how I might address these interactions. Should I let this one go? Should I speak up? What is the best way to say something and still stay safe?

I remember feeling frustrated in many of my classes, all mixed spaces. For many of my classmates, this was the first time they were thinking about privilege and oppression. They were starting a journey I had been on my whole life. There was a lot of shame and guilt and there were a lot of tears. While I am glad they started this work before seeing clients, at the time it made me feel like a specimen.

It felt as though I was being asked to slow down, to hold space for other people’s emotional reactions to my experiences. It felt like a lot of work to be asked to hold space for these emotions when I had my own unpacking to do. I was also very aware that as a non-Black Latine person, I had my own work to do. I still do and I do not want to cause harm as I go through that process.

A lot has changed in these last 10 years and I now regularly choose to hold these types of mixed spaces and love doing this type of work with my clients. But these experiences as a student highlighted for me how badly everyone needs affinity groups in all settings. To avoid the harmful interactions and help heal from past harms is why we’ve created these groups and I truly hope they are helpful to all our staff.

As a practice, we choose not to be afraid of the questions.

We want our staff to talk about their concerns and feelings in trusting spaces. We want them to feel validated and seen in their concerns and to know that we do not need to be invulnerable or have the perfect words on the first try. These spaces are for support. These spaces are for strategy. We don’t want anyone to have to do this work alone.