Diversity Training and Consulting

Why Diversity Training?

As our nation's economy becomes increasingly dependent on the global marketplace, organizations with multicultural skills and knowledge will have a competitive edge. The need to recruit and maintain the best available workers is critical to meeting future organizational objectives and responsibilities. Organizations that value and take advantage of their diversity, both among their employees and clientele, will be better prepared to build a cohesive and effective workforce to serve existing and emerging markets.

Diversity training helps individuals and organizations to:

The National Alliance of Hate Crime Investigators and Districts Attorneys Association (National Alliance) provides a broad range of services for organizations which are committed to meeting the long-term challenges posed by the increasing diversity in their workforce and their customer base. We design and provide training tailored to the needs of each organization. Our teams assist management in identifying issues, brainstorming solutions, undertaking strategic planning, and implementing effective changes in their institutions. Our services include:

 

National Alliance Approach to Diversity Training

The National Alliance of Hate Crime Investigators and District Attorneys Association (NAOHCIADAA) believes that people from diverse backgrounds are inherently capable of working together with respect and harmony. Lack of familiarity, however, and in some cases, bias and stereotyping, keep us from interacting successfully with people who are different from ourselves.

In National Alliance workshops, individual staff members explore and challenge the cultural assumptions that may be keeping them from performing effectively in a diverse setting. They gain appreciation of their own and other cultures, and they learn specific skills to help develop personal and professional competence to work and live in a multicultural society.

National Alliance Diversity Training and Consulting Services provide information, strategies to develop skills, and increase understanding through:

Our trainings are highly interactive and experiential so that participants "learn by doing." National Alliance goal is to create a safe and non-accusatory environment allowing participants to develop personal and professional competence for working and living in a multicultural society.

We view the world through individually constructed and societally imposed "cultural lenses." Becoming aware of the presence and impact of these lenses constitutes the first step towards successful interaction with people whose lenses are different from our own. Through experiential exercises, videos and group discussions, participants will develop an understanding of how pre-judgments and fear affect their perceptions of and interactions with each other.

Beyond Awareness: Building Cultural Competence

This experiential workshop is designed for individuals who have previously taken part in basic cultural awareness training. The goal is to increase participants' knowledge and skills to deal effectively with cultural differences. In this workshop, participants will learn to: 1) recognize when cultural factors may be influencing interpersonal dynamics; 2) enhance their effectiveness in cross cultural communications and problem solving capabilities; and 3) develop strategies for implementing changes leading towards a cohesive, culturally diverse work environment.

Training of Dialogue Facilitators

This highly experiential workshop is designed to provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and techniques needed to successfully organize and facilitate a dialogue on race and diversity to foster change. The workshop builds a strong foundation of awareness and understanding regarding the fundamental dynamics of racism, race relations, and diversity awareness. It involves participants in the experience of an actual dialogue, engaging them in shared inquiry into their own and others' thinking, exploring assumptions that underlie expressions of prejudice, bias, and bigotry. The workshop provides a wealth of information, including a complete step-by-step approach to successfully organizing a dialogue experience, and skill-building opportunities for dialogue facilitation, including small-group practice time with reflection and feedback from the trainers.

National Alliance Dialogue workshop provides a safe environment for participants to express themselves honestly and hear each other accurately in order to achieve mutual understanding and to build relationships of trust to successfully move beyond the safe, controlled environment of the workshop. It is facilitated for a face-to-face exchange of information, sharing of personal stories, and is designed for honest expression of emotion, exploration of assumptions, clarification of viewpoints, and deliberation of solutions to serious community concerns.

When Offered

Dialogue workshops are offered twice a year at the National Alliance national conferences, and upon request, we conduct on-site sessions for groups, communities, and organizations. Please contact us for details.

There is a growing recognition across the country of the need for Americans to engage in open and honest dialogue about race relations. President Clinton's recent call for "a national conversation on race and reconciliation" underscores the importance of such an endeavor. Americans are learning to bridge America's racial divides by participating in meaningful dialogues. Unlike debate, which tends to polarize and divide, dialogue develops the skills of listening, negotiation and mediation; the skills needed for mutual understanding. Dialogues have proven to be more important than "just talk." These dialogues are about serious talk ¾ the kind that addresses real problems that affect people's daily lives, problems such as institutionalized racism, racial justice and how to improve race relations; the kind of talk that leads to cross-cultural collaboration in solving community and workplace problems. Today our youth will take a serious look at this problem and offer suggestions and recommendations to the problem from their prospective.

Why Training in Dialogue Facilitation is Important

Experience has shown not only the importance of having conversations on diversity and race relations, but also the importance of doing them well. Discussions which focus on race can evoke strong emotions and people may be reluctant to take part in them. Some fear that the conversation will become heated, argumentative and confrontational or that they will say the wrong thing and be perceived as insensitive or "politically incorrect." Others may be concerned that their experiences or concerns will be misunderstood, dismissed or devalued.

Because of these difficulties, it is helpful to approach conversations about race with a dialogue model that helps break some of the unhelpful patterns people fall into and that creates a safe way for participants to talk openly with each other in respectful ways. Dialogues that facilitate ways to work together also help individuals look at what they have in common rather than what divides them, generating shared solutions to common concerns. Trained dialogue facilitators have a deep understanding of the dialogue process, the underlying dynamics of race relations, conflict transformation, and the skills needed to ensure safe and productive interactions.

Training of Diversity Trainers
Why train trainers?

We know that diversity training is not a one-time stand alone event that can instantaneously produce a positive workplace where all employees are culturally competent and have mastered the necessary skills for cross-cultural communications. Learning from diversity trainings need to be regularly reinforced. That is why many organizations select our training of trainers (TOT) workshops. By developing an in-house cadre of competent diversity trainers, organizations build internal capacity and invest in the future.

Managing Diversity

NAOFCIDAA's managing diversity workshop gives participants practical tools for building competence in managing diversity. Participants will learn to:

1. diagnose conflicts that have cultural dimensions

2. increase their ability to understand and respect cultural differences in communication

3. gain preliminary skills to remove cultural barriers to communication and enhance positive interactions

4. begin to reframe team-building activities and to appreciate and value differences

5. set a plan with specific ways to develop and build alliances within a diverse workforce

6. utilize techniques to interview and hire a diverse workforce

Cross-Cultural Communication

Organizations with a diverse workforce are at risk of not being as productive as they can be if co-workers and managers have little understanding of the diversity in communication styles. In this workshop, participants will:

1. learn the basics of communication theory;

2. heighten their awareness of cross-cultural communication patterns;

3. enhance their effectiveness in cross cultural communication; and

4. gain skills to effectively interrupt inappropriate speech and behavior.

In addition to our core training programs, The National Alliance frequently offers workshops such as:

The long range benefits of the National Alliance trainings go far beyond just the staff attending them. Participants complete our workshops with increased awareness for more effective day-to-day interactions. The strategies and skills they learn allow them to be change-agents in their work environments. Our trainings have been particularly effective for:

Telephone

732-460-0804

FAX

732-460-0804

Postal address

879 West Park Avenue, Cobblestone Village #161, Ocean Twp. N.J. 07712

Electronic mail

General Information: NAOHCI@AOL.Com