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Effectively Serving Culturally Diverse Students:  A Growing Opportunity for Job Corps

Effectively Serving Culturally Diverse Students:  A Growing Opportunity for Job Corps. Presenters Diane Peters Managing Partner Strategic Training Resources Mary Lopez Schell Director Humanitas, Inc. Overview/Defined. Diversity. Objectives. Provide overview of the concept of diversity.

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Effectively Serving Culturally Diverse Students:  A Growing Opportunity for Job Corps

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  1. Effectively Serving Culturally Diverse Students:  A Growing Opportunity for Job Corps

  2. PresentersDiane PetersManaging PartnerStrategic Training Resources Mary Lopez SchellDirector Humanitas, Inc.

  3. Overview/Defined Diversity

  4. Objectives • Provide overview of the concept of diversity. • Increase awareness of the various dimensions of diversity. • Examine our own cultural identity and how that identity affects our relationships with Job Corps staff and students and in the workplace. • Become more aware of our own attitudes, perceptions, and feelings about various aspects of diversity. • Make a commitment to increase an understanding of the scope of diversity issues in the workplace.

  5. Diversity is… • Much like jellybeans! • It represents a myriad of human perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, cultural values, beliefs, and practices.

  6. Diversity is… EVERYONE. People differ from one another in many ways. There are many dimensions of diversity. Some dimensions of diversity have more impact than others on the opportunities people may experience. Diversity can be categorized as primary and secondary dimensions. • The primary dimensions are unalterable and are extremely powerful in their effect. • The secondary dimensions are important in shaping us, but we have some measure of control over them.

  7. Developing Proficiency in Basic Concepts of Diversity and Culture Skill-Based Training

  8. POP ACTIVITY! Brief Skill-Based Training

  9. Dimensions of DiversityPrimary or Secondary? • Gender • Religious Beliefs • Marital Status • Race • Parental Status • Ethnicity • Language • Education • Occupation • Physical Ability • Learning Ability • Income • Sexual Orientation • Age • Geographic Location • Veteran Status

  10. Why is Diversity Important? Something to think about… • One in every 7 Americans speaks a language other than English at home. • An estimated 2 to 10 percent of the population is gay/lesbian. • People with disabilities make up the largest minority group today at 15 percent of the U.S. population. • Currently in California, our most populous state, Whites account for less than 50 percent of the state’s population.

  11. Why is Diversity Important? More to think about… • Estimates show that by 2056, there will be no single majority group in this country. The United States will be composed of multiple minority groups. • African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos will be the majority population in more than one-third of the nation’s 50 largest cities and five of the nation’s states. • 84% of LGBT community voted in the mid-term elections.

  12. A Girl Like Me Video 15

  13. Culture • What are some examples of your cultural programming? • Think about the family or personal beliefs or values you hold, or rituals you perform based on the cultural programming you received.

  14. POP ACTIVITY!Cultural Programming • “The marriage will be more successful if you say your vows while the clock is on the upside of the hour, not while it is on the downside of the hour.” • “Your hair will grow back if you cut it on the full moon.” • “You can’t teach an old dog. . .” • “Big boys don’t. . .” • “You can lead a horse to water, but. . .” These commonly recognized statements represent cultural attitudes that are, in some cases, inaccurate.

  15. POP ACTIVITY!Cultural Programming • Read each word or phrase as it comes up. For each one, write down the first thought that comes to your mind. Don’t spend a lot of time thinking—just write down the first thing that comes to mind. • Politician • Homeless person • Lawyer • Black male teenager • Professor • Police officer • Man in a wheelchair • Farmer • Californian • 300-pound woman

  16. Some Common Autonomic Responses • Politician: liar, government, white male • Lawyer: evasive, expensive, snake, someone who compromises • Professor: absent-minded, intelligent, educator, lifelong learning • Man in a wheelchair: weak, helpless, dependent, pity, suffering, asexual • Californian: surfer, physically fit, blond, tan • Homeless person: irresponsible, dangerous, drug and alcohol addict, unfortunate • Black male teenager: good athlete, drug dealer • Policeman: power hungry, helpful, trust, fine, beater/ abuser, risk-taker • Farmer: hard worker, unsophisticated, country bumpkin, American • 300-pound woman: motherly, lacking in discipline lazy, greedy, unattractive, jolly

  17. That’s So Gay 20

  18. Developing Diversity Competence (Proficiency) • To help us move “off automatic” and begin to value differences, we need to develop Diversity Competence. • Diversity Competence consists of four areas: • Awareness • Knowledge • Skills • Action or Behavior

  19. Awareness • Recognize staff and student differences as diversity rather than abnormal behavior or inappropriate responses to the environment. • Respect the benefits of Job Corps staff’s and student’s diverse values and behaviors. • Recognize your own ethnocentricity—the ways in which you stereotype, judge, and discriminate, and your emotional reactions to conflicting cultural values.

  20. Awareness • Understand the effect that historic distrust has on the present-day interactions of our staff and students. • Recognize the similarities that are shared across the “human culture,” regardless of the differences.

  21. It Gets Better Project 24

  22. Knowledge • Explore your family history and background. Where did your ancestors come from before arriving in this country? What are the special customs and traditions that were shared from generation to generation? • Learn factual information about other cultures and groups with different backgrounds represented on your Job Corps center. • See a movie about other cultural lifestyles. Compare how you live your life to what you’ve seen on film.

  23. Knowledge • Attend a cultural event, celebration, or holiday program of a different culture that you have never experienced before. Compare the similarities and differences of this event/celebration to those of your cultural group.

  24. Skills • Take personal responsibility for the way you respond to difference. • Make continued and sincere attempts to understand the world from a staff or student point of view. • Develop and model problem-solving skills. • Develop and model skills in conflict management. • Assist your center to look for ways to work effectively with diverse groups on center.

  25. Action/Behavior • Provide training to staff and students about cultural differences. • Develop a mentoring relationship with someone from a different culture or identity group represented on your center. • Show more patience when working and interacting with staff and students who have different learning styles than you.

  26. Action/Behavior • Integrate diversity issues as an ongoing topic in your center staff meetings. • Develop a personal plan for continued learning toward diversity competency based on the needs of your center.

  27. Diversity Competency (Proficiency) • CASE STUDY: Diversity Competence requires that each Job Corps center has a clearly defined, congruent set of values and principles, and demonstrates behaviors, attitudes, policies, structures, and practices that enable the center staff to work effectively with diverse groups.

  28. Suggestions and Resources Building Inclusiveness and Breaking Down Barriers

  29. Affirmative Action Plans • An Affirmative Action plan shall include methods to: • Ensure assimilation of minority group members and females throughout various center organizational and responsibility levels. • Identify and analyze civil rights problem areas. • Correct and follow up on problem situations and, if necessary, ensure that appropriate steps are taken to discourage recurrences. • Provide prompt, fair, and impartial consideration of discrimination complaints.

  30. Identify Barriers Students with disabilities may face visible and invisible barriers, such as: • Physical • Cultural • Fear • Denial • Equity • Cost

  31. The greatest barriers individuals with disabilities have faced for decades and continue to face today are attitudinal barriers. www.disabilityisnatural.com 34

  32. Who is a person with a disability? • An "individual with a disability" is someone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

  33. What is the percentage of people with disabilities in the workforce • People with disabilities in the labor force is 21.3% compared with 70.2 % for persons with no disability. 2011 Bureau of Labor Statistics

  34. What are some perceptions or fears that you have or you have heard regarding disability?

  35. Person-first Language • Educate, promote, and model the use of “Person-first” language. • Person First Language puts the person before the disability and describes what a person has, not who a person is. • For example, a“person with a disability”not a “disabled” person. This attitude or workplace culture is applicable for promoting overall inclusion policy.

  36. The r-Word Campaign

  37. Involving Employers • Invite employers to participate in the center’s programs and activities. • Include disability organization representatives on the center’s: • Community Relations Council • Business Industry Councils

  38. DiversityInc.’s Top 10 Companies www.diversityinc.com (2011)

  39. Job Corps Initiatives Supporting diversity

  40. SupportingDiversity • Collaborative Relationships • Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) • Civil Rights Center (CRC) • Disability Navigators • Job Accommodation Network (JAN) • Remote Interpreting • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

  41. Supporting Diversity • Activities/Resources • Webinars • Websites • Newsletters • Guidance and Training Documents/Manuals • Policy and Requirements Handbook (PRH) • EO Officer and Programs • Diversity Coordinator • Required Diversity Training • Career Success Standards • Multicultural Awareness Standard

  42. Diversity Resources • Job Corps Community Website – Cultural Competency Resources • http://jcweb.jobcorps.org/EnglishLanguageLearning/Pages/CulturalCompetencyCurriculum.aspx • National Center for Cultural Competence • http://www.clcpa.info • Smith, B., Miller; A. W., Archer, T., and Hague, C. Working with Diverse Cultures Fact sheet. CDFS-14. This is a publication of Ohio State University Extension. • http://ohioline.osu.edu/bc-fact/0014.html

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