GhostSkin

Ghost Skin isn’t your typical unconscious bias training platform. It stems from a real-life tragedy and connects a personal story to knowledge and science. In 2013, Jonathon Ferrell was unarmed and shot by police ten times in less than 20 seconds upon arrival to the scene. Jon suffered a horrific car accident and was seeking help. This gut-wrenching and intimate documentary is told by Caché Heidel, Jon’s high school sweetheart and fiancée, and her family. Ghost Skins documents Jon’s story and the stories of others, middle class and celebrities alike, whose interactions with the police involve profiling and traffic stops with guns drawn. The screening of this documentary is Part One of the program.

After several years of grief and her lack of understanding on how this could happen to Jon and herself, Caché’s mission, guided by her determination to change the perceptions of people, is to bring Jon's story to the international stage and teach others how to identify and overcome their biases. This Unconscious Bias workshop takes an interactive approach and is Part Two of the program. After the screening of the documentary “Ghost Skin”, Caché will leverage the film to evoke empathy and engage the audience through a series of questions. The objective is show that we as strangers are more often alike than we are different from each other and why it is important to focus on what we have in common. She will then begin with the first step of the workshop: Acceptance. The first step is to accept that everyone has a bias and yes, that includes EVERYONE. However, all of us are not aware of our biases as they are tucked somewhere deep in our minds. The second step is to DISCOVER our own bias(es) through a series of tests developed by Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji and her team of researchers. The third step is to UNDERSTAND how our biases may have developed over time which will lead us into the final step to OVERCOME our biases. Our ultimate goal is to arm individuals with the knowledge and tools to truly be egalitarians within society.

This workshop challenges each participant to pause before or soon after making swift judgments about another individual and to question themselves before they begin to act. Participants are given fact-based information as well as personal compelling testimonies that will later change how they think about themselves and others. They are taught how the inner-workings of our minds work and how to slow down the process of identifying and judging a total stranger. The intent is for everyone to leave the screening and unconscious bias training with an increased ability to identify hidden biases and blind spots within themselves and an expanded understanding on how to change our perceptions and the false narratives of others. Not only does this project bring a personal voice, but it also brings solutions to an incredibly large problem!

Locations for screening & training coming soon!