Diversity Equity and Inclusion

Audience:

This class is beneficial for everyone

Prerequisites:

None

Description:

Diversity is recognizing our individual differences whether they be age, gender, race, place of origin, color, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, marital status, family status or culture. Differences can also be in our values, talents, work experience, language and communication skills.

Diversity is about respecting, understanding, valuing and leveraging our differences in ideas, perspectives, backgrounds, cultures, skills, experiences and needs to create and maximize opportunities and potentials for individual, community and business growth. (Veenstra,201 1)

Diversity and inclusion are complex issues and intersectionality helps us understand that “social issues cannot be explored in isolation, as different identities such as race, gender, age, etc., intersect each person’s life and produce different privilege or oppression.”

This eye-opening course aims to help participants better understand and address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion by giving participants the opportunity to challenge their views and opinions. Through this engaging, interactive training we hope to help open dialogue with real-world examples of behaviors and beliefs.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion for workspaces
• Be able to describe and analyze key issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in one’s work environments and community
• Grasp the power of diversity as a tool for creativity, and productive collaboration in the workspace
• Have the opportunity to share elements of one’s culture with others
• Learn that norms and practices one thinks are universal may be culturally dependent
• Apply the Diversity and Awareness Model
• Identify Generational Cohorts and ways to effectively communicate with each
• Embrace neurodiversity as an employee characteristic in an inclusive workplace

Course Outline:

Lesson 1: Course Overview

The instructor will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Lesson 2: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Participants will discuss systemic barriers for racialized peoples and will learn what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean to each other. They will also explore what an inclusive workspace is and what a diverse workplace should look like.

Lesson 3: Inequities in Your Community

In this session, we will look at the impact of inequities in the communities that we work and live in. There will be an in-depth discussion about the differences between equality and equity and how to use the equity lens.

Lesson 4: Blind Spots Challenge

Participants will watch a video that challenges participants to know what their blind spots are when it comes to discriminating behaviors. Participants will discuss stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, and unconscious bias.

Lesson 5: The Diversity and Awareness Model

Participants will look at six areas of the Diversity and Awareness Model. A group discussion will take them through each area and give them ideas of how it can be applied in their workplace.

Lesson 6: The MultiGenerational Workplace

This session begins with an activity where the participants answer questions based on the way they view different ideas in the workplace. After the facilitator explains each generation and their modes of communication, then participants are given the results of their assessments to see where they fall. The moral is that being born during a certain generation does not always mean that is the way individuals think or communicate.

Lesson 7: Privilege for Sale

Participants will participate in an activity that illustrates how people are privileged or marginalized within society. This thought-provoking exercise is adjusted to fit in-person facilitation AND virtual facilitation.

Lesson 8: Neurodiversity in the Workplace

Participants will learn about neurodiverse co-workers and why there is a growing need for them in the workforce. They will explore ways to support them in being successful in their workspace.

Lesson 9: Strategies for the Workplace

In the final session, participants will work together to develop strategies that will support, help develop, or elevate current diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and procedures in the workplace. Then, they will work independently to look inside themselves, and their workspace, and think of what they will do differently.

Lesson 10: Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the course, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.