These workshops and retreats are created for businesses and organizations interested in educating their employees while fostering equitable, just, and inclusive community-building.  Programming is also available for advanced high school and college students at a discounted rate. For younger audiences, we recommend our Character Education experience.  More information can be found by clicking here.

I. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Workshops

• 4-Hour Experience
• $900; $600/non-profit (meals not included)
• Up to 40 participants
• All of our Retreats and Workshops are conducted by the Ali Center’s professional educators.
• Sessions can be conducted in-person or virtually. In-person sessions include a Guided Tour of the Ali Center’s museum.
• Workshop time and number of attendees can be customized to meet your needs. Meals can be provided at an additional cost.

Each of our workshops includes an exploration of Muhammad Ali’s legacy and the following subjects:

1. Identities of Privilege and Oppression—Participants will increase their knowledge of intersectional identities and the forces at work that create systems of oppression.
2. Anti-Racism—Participants will learn the origins of racism, its current impact on society, and strategies for anti-racist social change.
3. Taking Action—Participants will learn how every person within an organization can be a part of building a just and inclusive space for all and leave empowered to take action.

II. Muhammad Ali Center Guided Tour and Talking Circles Experience

• 3-Hour Experience
• $600; $400/non-profit (meals not included)
• Up to 20 participants
• The Talking Circles program is conducted by the Ali Center’s trained Circle Keepers and includes a Guided Tour of the Center’s permanent and temporary exhibits
• The Talking Circles program can be customized to meet your needs. Meals can be provided at an additional cost.

The Muhammad Ali Center’s Talking Circle Program presents a hands-on way to help your staff explore the roots of racial discrimination and to discuss their own experiences with race and racism. Your experience will begin with a Guided Tour of the Center’s permanent and temporary exhibits led by one of our professional educators.  Following the tour, your group will participated in a mediated “Talking Circle” in one of our private event spaces. Talking Circles are facilitated discussions in which all participants are invited to reflect on race and racism as a factor in their lives and communities.  The Circles are designed to allow participants to share their own experiences with race in a structured but non-hierarchical forum. The Center will rely on the Talking Circle process developed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections and taken from Native American traditions. The technique allows everyone to speak and to listen in a safe and respectful setting.

*This in-person Guided Tour experience is currently available for reservations after April 1, 2021.

III. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Retreats and Long-Term Engagements

• $3000; $2000/non-profit (meals not included)
• Up to 40 participants
• Engagements can be conducted virtually or in-person. In-person retreats and engagements include a Guided Tour of the Ali Center’s museum exhibits.
• Retreat time and number of attendees can be customized to meet your needs. Meals can be provided at an additional cost. Contact the Education department for more information.

The MAC’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Retreats and Long-Term Engagements are intensive experiences for organizations looking to engage in deep learning and cultural change.  Through these engagements, the Ali Center will conduct pre-interviews and will curate individual recommendations for the organization tailored to your specific needs.

Organizations will receive a certificate of completion and a participant-driven Values Statement at the conclusion of the engagement.

For more information or to reserve your Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism program please contact the Education Department ateducation@alicenter.orgor 502-992-5341.

The Muhammad Ali Center’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism programs can be an important tool for businesses and organizations to explore preconceptions and attitudes in an involving, non-confrontational way.   Potential outcomes to engagement include:

• Participants build empathy and understanding by exploring real-world examples of how race and racism has affected our history and our lives today.
• -Participants become a part of the solution and feel empowered to engage in building equitable and inclusive environments.
• Creating a common experience exploring issues of race can create a more comfortable and supportive work environment: costs associated with excessive turnover and absenteeism can be reduced, problem-solving and innovation are stimulated, and tolerance for individuality is enhanced.

Testimonial

In the Fall of 2019 my colleagues and I brought 45 students to the Muhammad Ali Center for an extensive retreat centered around diversity, inclusion, equity, social justice, and anti-racism. Personally, I can think of no better place to have conversations concerning these than the place created to commemorate the legacy of one of the world’s greatest humanitarians and advocates for peace and justice. Built upon his six core principles, the Muhammad Ali Center is the perfect venue for any group, organization, or institution to come and have serious conversations about how they can move forward in working towards a more equitable, just, and inclusive society. For two days the wonderful staff of the Educational Services department lead our group through a series of critical-oriented seminars, each designed to help the students see their capacities as leaders and strengthen their resolve in becoming positive agents of change in our school. The training sessions they planned were engaging for every participant and each felt safe in having their voice heard in discussions about the challenging topics and issues facing our communities and country. Erin and her staff listened to our story and crafted a program designed to specifically meet our needs. They were welcoming, involved, and expressed what I can only describe as a sincere desire to help our students grow. Capped off with the writing of a vision statement for our school that was put together by the staff from notes they had taken during their interactions with us, the experience left our students with a strong sense of personal responsibility to take action upon its conclusion. In conversations with those that attended, positive feedback concerning the experience was all we received. The strongest testament to the program’s efficacy is that it informs the work of our Student Diversity Committee and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Robert Fitzgerald, PhD Fulbright Distinguished Teacher

For nearly 15 years, the Muhammad Ali Center (MAC) has been a pillar of respect, hope, and understanding in the Louisville community and beyond. The Muhammad Ali Center believes that systemic and institutionalized racism is the defining issue of our time.  Through our programming, exhibitions, initiatives, and strategic partnerships, the MAC promotes Social Justice locally, nationally, and globally to advance fair and equitable societies in which each individual matters and where all human rights are recognized, respected, and protected.  The MAC works to effect meaningful change in order to remove the barriers that people face because of citizenship, gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, disability, poverty, health, and limited access to education.