Track:
Despite the emergence of an interconnected and global society, we continue to face the same cultural conflicts and challenges of previous decades. How we perceive the world is based, in part, on our experiences and upbringing, and these perceptions can cause us to have feelings and attitudes about others based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, age, and appearance.
These associations start at an early age and develop over the course of a lifetime, impacting our behaviors and leading to discrimination. However, we have witnessed groups effect change through collaborative efforts designed to raise awareness and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) on behalf of representative needs.
The cultural competence of human-serving professionals is critical to the successful support of strong families and communities. By cultivating a thorough understanding of different cultures and peoples by reviewing historical precedence and current data, leadership can strengthen their organizations’ capacity to build culturally-enriched workplaces and provide services in intentional, appropriate ways that account for individual experiences.
Through the lens of equity theory and diversity management, this presentation will explore ideas such as implicit bias, the complexities of EDI, and how biases and perceptions can influence behaviors both generally and in culturally significant settings.
Participants will explore their relationship with EDI in a safe environment, learn how to recognize their own biases, and reduce the potential for micro-aggressions in their work and lives.
A firm, foundational understanding of bias, implicit or otherwise, continues to move conversations surrounding EDI forward, but such understanding is reliant on the ongoing collaboration of organizations and professionals to align behaviors, practices, and procedures with cultural competencies. Participants will walk away with a firm grasp of EDI best practice, allowing them to create programming and supports that accurately reflect the perspectives of individuals served.
Learning Objectives:
- The definition of EDI through history, legislation, data, and experiences
- The benefits of EDI to the workplace and the wider human-serving sector
- How biases, racism, and incivility create barriers to building an EDI-enriched workplace culture
- Howe to neutralize the impact of bias on cultural competency and decision making
Presenters:
- Terri Howard, senior director, FEI Behavioral Health
- Undraye P. Howard, senior director of equity, diversity, inclusion and engagement and leadership, Alliance for Strong Families and Communities