Objectives

1. Celebrating Differences  A Growing Opportunity for Job CorpsSuzanne G. Martin PsyD, MPHRegional Mental Health Specialist

2. Objectives • Provide an overview of the concept of diversity. • Describe the dimensions of diversity. • Discuss your own cultural identity and how it affects relationships with Job Corps staff and students. • Articulate your own attitudes, perceptions, and feelings about various aspects of diversity.

3. Overview/Defined Cultural Diversity

4. Diversity is… • a range of human perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, cultural values, beliefs, and practices.

5. Diversity is… • EVERYONE, because people differ from one another in many ways. The major dimensions of 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.

6. Diversity Brief Skill-Based Training

7. 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

9. 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.

10. Why is Diversity Important? More to think about… • Today, Whites represent about 70 percent of the population. By the year 2050 approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population will be non-White. • Shortly thereafter (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.

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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. 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. Cultural Programming • Read each word or phrase as it comes up. For each one, what is the first thought that comes to your mind? Don’t spend a lot of time thinking… • Politician • Homeless person • Lawyer • Black male teenager • Professor • Police officer • Man in a wheelchair • Farmer • Californian • 300-pound woman

16. Some Common Automatic 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. Developing Diversity Proficiency • Diversity Proficiency consists of four areas: • Awareness • Knowledge • Skills • Action or Behavior

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Knowledge • Explore your family history and background. • 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.

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

22. Action/Behavior • 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. • 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.

23. LEARN Listen with empathy and understanding from the individual’s perspective Explain your perception of the issue Acknowledge and discuss the differences and similarities Recommend a solution Negotiate an agreement 23

24. Diversity Proficiency in Job Corps • 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.

25. What is greatest barrier to diversity? • Physical • Cultural • Fear • Denial • Equity • Cost • Attitude

26. Job Corps Initiatives SUPPORTING DIVERSITY

27. Supporting Diversity • Collaborative Relationships • Civil Rights Center (CRC) • Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) • Disability Navigators • Job Accommodation Network (JAN) • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

28. Supporting Diversity • Activities/Resources • Policy and Requirements Handbook (PRH) • EO Officer and Programs • Diversity Coordinator • Required Diversity Training • Career Success Standards • Multicultural Awareness Standard • Disability websites • Job Corps Disability • Job Corps Learning Disability and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity • Cultural Competency Resources

29. 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

30. Diversity Resources Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/cre/ Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network http://www.glsen.org 30