Expand your diversity, equity and inclusion awareness

Three opportunities are being offered to improve our diversity, equity and inclusion skills – an understanding unconscious bias workshop, intercultural competence program and a 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge.

Vice President Glenda Humiston encourages participating in activities such as these to support the ANR Strategic Plan 2020-2025 goal to develop a more inclusive and equitable workplace.

Understanding Unconscious Bias: Awareness, knowledge and competency development

Bias, in its most simplistic definition, is having a preference for one thing over another. Also, biases come into play in our impressions and judgment of people, especially those whose identities and experiences are different from our own.

Mikael Villalobos, associate chief diversity officer in the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UC Davis, and Eric Sanchez, diversity and inclusion educator at UC Davis, will lead the workshop.

Objectives:

• We will explore how we make snap judgments about people by understanding how socialization informs our biases.
• Participants will be introduced to theory and language in understanding implicit and explicit bias.
• Using personal reflection, experiential exercises and case studies, participants will gain greater awareness when they engage in bias and gain essential knowledge and skills (tools) in how they recognize and mitigate biases in both personal and professional domains.

Who should attend:

• Employees who work with clientele, volunteers or provide support to others in ANR.
• Priority will be given to people who have not had previous access to this learning topic.
• There will be a waiting list for those who are interested, but regularly engage with bias-related topics.

Each of the two-hour workshops will be tailored to job roles, but you are welcome to sign up for the session that fits your schedule. Each session will be limited to 35 participants.

Academic coordinators, UCCE advisors, UCCE specialists, community educators, UCCE field workers, REC and staff research associates and other employees who deliver programs to clientele

• Thursday, March 3, 10 a.m.-noon
• Wednesday, April 7, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
• Tuesday, June 1, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
• Monday, June 7, 10 a.m.-noon

Volunteer coordinators, managers and other employees who work with volunteers  

• Thursday, March 4, 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
• Monday, May 10, 10 a.m.-noon

Administrative and support staff who provide support to others in ANR  

• Monday, March 15, 10 a.m.-noon
• Thursday, May 20, 10 a.m.-noon

To register for Understanding Unconscious Bias, visit https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=32980.

Take the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge

UC ANR employees are invited to participate in the Food Solutions New England 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge. The challenge timeframe is April 5-25, 2021, so sign up before March 29.

The challenge:

• will raise your awareness, change your understanding, and potentially shift the way you behave,
• goes beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism and white supremacist patterns that are sometimes invisible to people, and
• inspires you to act, on your own or with others in your organization, business or group, to dismantle these systems.

Why you should participate:

• The 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge led by Food Solutions New England is designed to increase personal awareness and address cultural competency, implicit bias, and other relevant topics that are critical to deliver programs and to address needs of the people California.

How this works and your commitment:

• Each morning of the Challenge, you'll receive an email "prompt" from Food Solutions New England with a short reading, video or audio file. You are encouraged to spend 10 to 15 minutes each day with the material in the prompt.
• You are encouraged to participate in weekly discussion groups for this challenge. You can be placed in a group based on your registration responses or form your own group.  These conversations require vulnerability and a safe environment. Guidelines will be available to help your group preserve both.

To participate, please complete both online forms as outlined below before 8 a.m. Monday, March 29.

1. Register here to participate to receive email prompts from Food Solutions New England.
2. Complete this form to share with ANR that you will participate and to receive assistance with discussion group placement.

Increase your intercultural competence

UC ANR's Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrators team invites you to participate in a professional development opportunity to increase your intercultural competence and demonstrate our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and growth as professionals. 

An ANR-wide cohort of 10 to 12 individuals will participate in an intercultural competence professional development activity that uses the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). 

As a member of the cohort, you will:

•  Take the Intercultural Development Inventory, 
•  Receive individualized coaching by an IDI Qualified Administrator, who will review your confidential results and help guide you to increase your intercultural competence, including your personalized intercultural competence plan. 
•  This process is confidential

In addition, to support your intercultural competence professional development, you will have the opportunity to participate in several structured learning opportunities with other UC ANR professionals and video trainings. In these interactive and participatory sessions, you will engage in open dialogue and deep reflection on issues related to your work.

The commitment begins March 2021 and extends through August 2021, with an IDI Conference in February 2022. The $150 registration is paid for by ANR Learning & Development. Priority will be given to people who have no or little experience with the work of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

By participating in this intercultural competence program, you will: 

• Increase understanding of how the development of our individual and collective intercultural competence is connected to the UC ANR mission and core values
• Increase understanding of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to strengthen your intercultural competence; understand how people perceive cultural similarities and differences and learn strategies to begin to bridge these differences.
• Understand how people perceive cultural similarities and differences and learn strategies to begin to bridge these differences.

If you would like to participate in this professional development opportunity, please fill out the IDI Interest Survey by March 12, 2021.

For more information, contact the Intercultural Development Inventory Qualified Administrators Team:        

Dorina Espinosa, dmespinoza@ucanr.edu

Maria de la Fuente, medelafuente@ucanr.edu

Russell Hill, rdhill@ucanr.edu

Car Mun Kok, cmkok@ucanr.edu

Keith Nathaniel, kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu

Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, lschmittmcquitty@ucanr.edu

Liliana Vega, live@ucanr.edu

 

 

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