- Without the commitment from all parts of the organization, it is not likely to succeed. There will be a need to engage the National Volunteer Assembly, the board of directors, the National Council, advisory groups, committees, and the general body of volunteers and staff early and often in the process.
- That attempts to define and discuss diversity are limited to sending more, poor minority students abroad. There is a need for AFS-USA stakeholders to engage in a discussion about how to define diversity in a broader sense, which we believe can be driven by a diversity committee.
- Volunteers and staff may be asked to act outside of their comfort zone to engage diverse communities. Although we are an organization that deals with cultural differences on a daily basis, our own experiences aren’t often debriefed for understanding, we aren’t often sitting as students in the orientations. It may be necessary to provide diversity training and not assume it happens through simple exposure to other cultures.
- AFS-USA may not have the capacity to successfully implement the changes recommended by the diversity committee. As an example, we have not shown much skill in integrating new volunteers, or even returnees, into existing units. It is an issue that, in the perception of some, plagues our volunteer development efforts.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Diversity Committee Proposal -- Biggest Concerns
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#1 and 4: One of the early products that I would hope could come from this committee are some training materials something like I found on your link http://www.joe.org/joe/2001august/a1.php, raising cultural awareness among volunteers relative to engaging diverse volunteers and host families, and tips for doing so. Honestly, I think most volunteers are not opposed to diversity, they just fail to actively work on the issue. By providing some awareness around the issue, along with some sensitivity training and suggested good practices, and then just keeping reminders and tips in front of volunteers thru submissions in Vol Dev newsletters, I think we would probably have a measurable and very positive effect.
ReplyDelete# 2... unfinished sentence?
# 3... last word: should it be "culturES"?
I don't understand why (#2) we are limited to the topic of sending more poor kids as our only source of discussion and attempts of definition. We now have programs that are offered to people all the way to the age of 80. Age is also an agent in the definition of diversity. One can see as well that diversity can be defined soley on ethnic background OR financial status - it does not have to be both. One other minority group that gets overlooked because it is not as apparent is the LGBTQ community. It is without a doubt, based on personal conversations and experience that people from this group, who are interested in exploring other cultures, feel hindered because of the fear that they will be rejected/disrepsected based on their sexual orientation, or gender (i.e. male to female, female to male).
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I'd like to reinforce #4 and say that to integrate a more diverse population of volunteers means one must start with who they have and educate. If the existing volunteer body is not ready to accept or simply does not understand people from different communities in their own country then there is no way a more traditional AFS-USA volunteer can connect on a meaningful level with volunteers who come from different generations, financial backgrounds, ethnic groups, neighborhodds, or to people with different sexual orientations. There is no denying it will most likely be impossible, even in the most current diverse neighborhoods, for people of different diverse groups to relate on the same level as two people who come from the same one. But if one can be educated about that different group, and understand where they're coming from and how they feel then respect will overule all and a trusting bond will form to create a more solid, long-term, and faithful volunteer relationship.
AFSharon, yes, I think that providing resources that translate our belief in and desire for diversity (because I do think it's a shared ideal within AFS) into practice will be the top priority of the committee. So, resources that facilitate that change, like sharing best practices and training, will be an important outcome of its work.
ReplyDeleteDoug, point #2 is an unfinished thought, which was an oversight on my part, sorry. My intention was to say that we need to look at diversity in the broadest sense, and not simply understand this as an attempt to send poor minority students, which is a common perception when diversity comes up. My thought is that the committee would provide the platform for helping us, as an organization, define what we mean by diversity. My hope is that how we define it is a true reflection of the diversity in our society.
ReplyDeleteAfrican-American students may need an additional piece of orientation. Some of my area team students have experienced discrimination overseas (Finland, Germany, Honduras). Maybe we should talk about how they might handle that. We should also make our partners aware and give them training about how to handle such discrimination.
ReplyDeleteRecruit more African-American, Hispanic, Asian host families. We are sometime successful with this by just sending out an email school list serve announcement about the opportunity to host an exchange student. However, sometimes the exchange students who are assigned to a household, say that they didn't come on the program to be with an African-American family. They want the "typical" American family. A few exchange students (from Japan, Latin America--Columbia) have said some terrible things and we deal with it. Essentially, the student was given a great host family that met our requirements and the student is not allowed to change because they want another family.
Anonymous, I'll admit I wasn't thinking far enough ahead: If we are sending more minority students, then we have to be prepared for what may mean an increase in support cases, if we don't provide the right type of orientation and support.
ReplyDeleteWith the issue of minority families being discriminated by host students is a bit jarring, and in my mind it's evidence that there is still a perception in the world that we are a relatively homogenous country...which if you look at the minority-majority demographic info, it's not the case in many places. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/013734.html
Doug, diversity is not fully defined in this document as it seems premature. More discussion and thought needs to go into what would be diverse for AFS USA. Once we know what our demographic is, we will know which groups are underrepresented, and will have greater direction. As I see it, the ultimate goal is that AFS USA reflect the diversity of our country and communities within.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that we need to take a broad view of groups that we may be neglecting; a minority group that is often over-looked is individuals with disabilities. Maybe the proposal needs to more clearly state that the focus is not on one diverse group?
In terms of the big issue of integration, this may be our biggest challenge but the reality is we have to find ways to bring in new volunteers, participants and host families. Maybe we'll have to be a little more creative and less focused on Chapters and Area Teams that work together solely based on geography.