Changing Racism
A Personal Approach to Multiculturalism Valerie A. Batts, Ph.D., Originator of Workshop
Workshop Description	Strategies and Skills
Cognitive and Affective	Supervised Follow-up

Workshop Description

Multiculturalism refers to the process of recognizing, understanding, and appreciating one’s own culture as well as the culture of others. It stresses an appreciation of the impact of differences &, gender, class, age, sexual/affectional orientation, religion, military experience and physical ability. Using race as a target variable, participants in the four-day workshops learn concrete strategies for:

• Identifying personal prejudice and misinformation;
• Identifying institutional racism and other forms of systemic oppression and discrimination;
• Changing dysfunctional intra-racial and inter-racial behavior;
• Understanding the personal effects of systemic oppression &.g. racism, in both whites and people of color; sexism, in both men and women; ageism, in the young, middle-aged and elders;
• Incorporating information regarding current issues, problems and methods important to exploring multicultural issues.

Go directly to the Workshop Schedule page or Registration Form

The workshop integrates TA/Gestalt theory and techniques with other personal and community change models. Workshop participants have included:

mental health providers
social service providers
affirmative action officers
educators
managers
health care providers
political leaders
religious leaders
technicians and blue collar workers and
others in the public and private sectors

This training is ideally suited for individuals and groups who are working in multicultural environments, experiencing race-related problems or wanting to get “re-energized”in their commitment to changing racism, sexism, classism, ageism or other “isms.”

Cognitive and Affective

Our goal in the training is to help participants learn to cognitively and affectively increase their ability to recognize, understand and appreciate diversity in the workplace or community. We believe that racism and other “isms”continue to get in the way of successful multicultural environments. As a result, new strategies are needed to confront modern or subtle manifestations of “isms”in the 1990s.

Strategies and Skills

Our four-day workshop is a thorough introduction to strategies involved in creating multicultural environments. When you complete this course, we believe you will have the skills necessary to identify and challenge “isms”in yourself, in others, and in organizations.

 If you wish to enhance your learning experience, we suggest that you articulate some personal goals and hopes for the training prior to the actual workshop. During the training, it is also helpful to be aware of your responses both to the information we present, and how we conduct the workshop.

 Each of our workshops is unique. Depending upon the needs of each training group, we stress different aspects of our core design. It is likely that attendance at two to four workshops would provide exposure to all the material we cover. All workshops combine personal and group experiential learning with information about “isms”and opportunities to practice new approaches.

 VISIONS regards multicultural training as an ongoing process. It takes time and support to assimilate new information, develop different behaviors, and implement change. It is important that participants understand that completion of a four-day workshop does not reflect the end of one’s training in this area. Quite to the contrary! For even though participants will be eager to experiment with making personal and organizational changes, they will also want to continue learning and getting support and feedback.

Supervised Follow-up

VISIONS also offers supervised follow-up for continued multicultural training through monthly, day-long sessions. These sessions allow participants to practice implementing multicultural approaches with the support and feedback of our trainers and other participants. The prerequisite for this ongoing supervision program is attendance at two VISIONS 4-day workshops or equivalent VISIONS’ training. Call the VISIONS office for a schedule of ongoing supervision sessions and registration information.

 Call for more information:

Arlington,  MA.  (781) 643-5190

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Copyright © 1996 VISIONS, INC
Last modified: 02/12/04