Diversity Dialogues

A PROCESS
FOR FACILITATING AGENCY
DIALOGUE AND ASSESSMENT
OF DIVERSITY

The purpose of Diversity Dialogues is to assist sevice agencies to assess their progress in diversity in a way that validates their currents activities, builds on existing agency diversity-related strengths and initiatives,and motivated them to continue. They are based on the premise that the skills necessary to navigate difference carry the potential to mature and develop agency culture and practices far beyond what is currently understood. This belief is central to the Dialogues and has been incorporated into the emphasis in the training on building on existing agency diversity-related strengths and initiatives.

Diversity is commonly understood as the ways we are different and similar from each other e.g. out ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs etc… AND it is more than that.

• As our understanding of diversity is evolving, we are seeing it as a tool for organizational change. Generally, most agencies have an awareness of our
differences and similarities, and the next focus is how to build the skills to bridge those differences in order to develop respectful environments.
• Diversity does not mean harmony! It means an enhanced capacity to work across our differences – to bridge our differences. Diversity is an ongoing
process AND it is in the ongoing process and practicing of bridging
differences that respectful environments develop.
• Diversity can provide the focus – the jumping off point - from which to develop the relationship, communication and collaborative skills necessary to
the ongoing expansion and improvement of services and the ongoing maturity and long term survival of agencies. Out of the skills of bridging differences
emerges individual, team and agency flexibility, adaptability and resilience to change – a key survival skill in our ever changing workplaces and society.
• Diversity is both our identities and a set of skills for working across our various identities.
• Respect for and skills in Diversity are the building blocks to creating respectful work environments, programs and services.

For more information and to arrange a workshop, contact Terre Flower at 250-753-6911 ex 3.