JEBI Foundations Certificate Program

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Justice, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion (JEBI) Certificate Program

OVERVIEW

This six-course justice, equity, belonging, and inclusion certificate program will help faculty and staff acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate within Holy Cross’ diverse and inclusive community, as well as the local community and beyond. This program will help Holy Cross begin that shift in understanding from competence to humility resulting in the acknowledgment and respect of all colleagues' individuality, while promoting empathy, connection, and a healthier campus community.

Cultural Competency was first coined in the healthcare industry and soon spread to other industries and organizations. The general idea was if people providing services or assistance are more culturally knowledgeable about the demographic they serve, they can provide better services and care. Today, cultural competency is the bare minimum and runs into problems because culture (especially one that’s not your own) is not something you can truly master. There can be no one set of rules that apply to all in a culture and attempting to do so would negate the complexity of human beings and our own unique experiences. Cultural competence results in people feeling reduced to one part of their identity and in juxtaposition with Holy Cross’ DEI goal to shift to a state of inclusion and belonging. 

On the other hand, cultural humility goes beyond the concept of cultural competence because it is an approach or cultural shift rather than a fixed set of knowledge or criteria. It emphasizes intersectionality and understanding one’s implicit biases, which cultivates greater self-awareness and self-reflection. When institutions cultivate cultural humility, they enter discussions and conversations with an open and curious mind. This curiosity is directed at their own shortcomings in perception and results in an understanding that bridging those gaps in awareness is an ongoing process.

GOALS

  1. Build awareness through interrupting microaggressions, understanding DEI concepts, and recognizing unconscious bias.
  2. Help participants acquire the knowledge, language, behavioral, and cultural skills necessary to navigate within a diverse and inclusive community.

SPECIFICATIONS

Every semester the program will hold six sessions (The Four Core and two electives). Participants can navigate this program at their own pace and there is no set time to finish. In the summer the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will host a summer institute consisting of two days of the four core workshops and participants can elect to attend this institute to get required sessions out of the way. In addition to the six required sessions, participants will need to attend one DEI-related campus event to complete this program.

Every year ODEI will open submissions for staff, faculty, students, and local community members to present independent research on a topic concerning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as a session in the next year's program. 

Participants who matriculated after August 2023 will be required to fulfill the requirements below in order to complete the JEBI Certificate Program:

  • 4 CORE Workshops
  • 2 Electives or 1 Elective and 2 DEI-Related Events
  • 1 DEI-Related Event

 

Understanding Bias and Mitigating its Effects, Lv. 101

Implicit Bias is a cognitive process and refers to unconscious attitudes, reactions, stereotypes, and categories that affect behavior and understanding. This 90-minute workshop explains what implicit bias is and helps to recognize manifestations of implicit bias and its harmful consequences including microaggressions. While being mindful of biases is a step in recognizing and mitigating the harmful impacts they cause, mindfulness alone is not enough to undo the harm of implicit bias. Participants will understand how coming into awareness of bias is the first step in the process of dismantling systemic bias, of undoing the harm both personally and institutionally. In small groups, participants will discuss where they witness bias on campus; share strategies for how to address it both personally and institutionally; and what they would like to see their institution do to address bias within their community.

Outcomes:

  • Individuals increase their understanding of what bias is and how it manifests in each of us, within campus, and within our social groups
  • Individuals are provided with a baseline of vocabulary specific to implicit bias
  • Individuals are provided with resources to push their program, department, or division to continue moving toward transformational change

Understanding Gender & Sexuality 101

The LGBTQIA+ community is a growing population on campus that has been negatively impacted by a lack of education and understanding by the general public. This workshop seeks to address the missing education in order to better understand and become accepting of the community, This workshop provides an introduction to the various gender and sexual identity terms, an understanding of the difference between gender and sexuality, the importance of using the correct pronouns in conversations and documents and recognizing manifestations of bias in regard to gender and sexual identities and its harmful consequences. This is approximately a 90-minute workshop that is interactive and provides exercises to practice using gender-neutral pronouns, as well as videos and tips/recommendations, to break the harmful stereotypes that the public has historically held.

Outcomes:

  • Individuals increase their understanding of what gender and sexual identities are
  • Individuals are provided with a baseline of vocabulary specific to gender and sexuality
  • Individuals are provided with resources to push their program, department, or division to continue moving toward transformational change

Building Inclusive Communities: Understanding Identity and the Cycle of Socialization and Liberation, Lv. 101

This 90-minute workshop explores social identities and bias and their impact on society. This workshop introduces the various identities that are present in society, defines them, and includes a small group activity to discuss and break down the privilege and disadvantages associated with some identities. The activity allows individuals to reflect on their own privilege and how intersectionality plays an important role. The workshop also focuses on how bias can lead to microaggressions. Microaggressions are defined and tips for responding to them are given. Participants will be asked to reflect on and answer discussion questions based on example scenarios in which some common microaggressions are highlighted.

Outcomes:

  • Individuals increase their understanding of identities and how some identities give us an advantage leading to disparities in society
  • Individuals increase their understanding of what bias is and how it manifests in each of us, within the workplace, and within our institutions
  • Individuals increase their understanding of what microaggressions are and how implicit bias plays a role in its manifestation in each of us, within the classroom/workplace, and within our institutions
  • Individuals who experience microaggressions and bias are empowered and learn how to and when to respond

Leveraging Privilege at a Predominantly White Institute (PWIs)*

Privilege is an often poorly defined concept. We all think we know what privilege is, but the definition tends to get muddled with things we believe are privileges but aren't. And let's not get started on how murky the waters get when we throw white privilege into the mix. That is when privilege can become a dangerous weapon. PWIs stand for Predominantly White Institutes, according to the Department of Education…In this interactive session, privilege and white privilege will be clearly defined for attendees. There will be an examination of the overlaps and intersections between the concepts of privilege and white privilege. Attendees will be asked to analyze their privilege and how it plays out in their personal and professional lives. Participants will look at how privilege and white privilege are weaponized in the persistent harming of others. Lastly, we'll discuss ways to interrupt the weaponization of privilege and white privilege in ourselves and others and instead encourage participants to utilize privilege as a tool to combat racism and discrimination at PWI.

*This core course will rotate with a new workshop yearly

Navigating & Facilitating Difficult Conversations

Having difficult conversations is a key aspect of working as a team, and yet it is often the most uncomfortable. We have a host of concerns that influence our decision about whether or not to engage in a difficult conversation; such as retaliation, damage to relationships, angering others, impacting morale, making others uncomfortable, or feeling incompetent. On the other hand, facilitation is core to all successful training, workshops, and programming. What does it mean to facilitate? What are your goals as a facilitator? What should you pay attention to? These are the important questions that you will be taught to consider along with the four objectives of facilitation when planning any and every facilitation session. This interactive training focuses on learning how to have a difficult conversation in a way that builds relationships, acknowledges the interests or needs of others, as well as our own, and builds collaborative solutions that improve efficiencies. As well as walk you through the fundamentals of workshop facilitation with a particular focus on how to navigate common disruptive personality types. The goal is to increase the effectiveness of teams, meetings, workshops, and programs by increasing the quality of facilitation and group communication skills. This workshop prepares participants to design and facilitate effective remote, hybrid, and face-to-face meetings, training, programming, and teams.

Outcomes:

  • Develop skills to effectively facilitate and communicate during meetings or large groups
  • Individuals learn how to use empathy to minimize negative responses and the importance of strengthening relationships
  • Individuals build awareness of their own style and how to leverage it to cultivate an inclusive learning environment
  • Individuals learn how to bring a difficult conversation or facilitation to a close

Racism in the U.S. Food System

This 90-minute workshop will start with a macro approach to environmental racism and food insecurity. The first half will provide important terms to achieve a beginning understanding of this topic. The workshop will then switch to a micro approach focusing on how environmental racism and racism within the food system have affected minority populations in Central MA. We will cover what holding a brave space looks like, how to ensure all voices and perspectives are being heard, and provide an introduction to implicit bias and how it manifests within the food system and society as a whole. Additionally, small groups will be used to create deeper reflection and conversation about these topics.

Outcomes:

  • Individuals increase their understanding of what environmental racism and food insecurity are and how they manifest within the food systems and society as a whole
  • Individuals are provided with a baseline of vocabulary specific to environmental racism and food insecurity and the roles they play in maintaining racist food systems.

A History of Race and Racism in New England

This 90-minute, workshop narrows the focus of the "systemic lens" and helps participants understand how race was made in the New England context and its legacy. We will explore the history of New England slave-holding, land theft, and white racial preference. We will examine the factors that led to New England having sundown towns and some of the most segregated cities in the US in the 21st Century. We will also learn about how race-based redlining and racially restrictive covenants shaped our modern New England landscape.

Outcomes:

  • Individuals increase their understanding of the history of racism and racist policies in New England and how they shaped our modern New England landscape.
  • Explore the history of systemic racism in New England in law and policy
  • Consider the long-term impact of such policies on the structural and cultural realities in New England

  1. Tuesday, October 10th from 12-1 pm (Zoom) - Understanding Bias and Mitigating its Effects 

  2. Thursday, October 19th from 12-1 pm (In-Person, Hogan 401) - Leveraging Privilege at a Historically White Institution
  3. Monday, October 23rd from 12-1 pm (Zoom) - Understanding Gender and Sexuality
  4. Tuesday, October 31st from 11 am - 12 pm (Zoom) - History of Race and Racism in New England
  5. Wednesday, November 8th from 4-5 pm (In-Person, Hogan 401) - Building Inclusive Communities: Understanding Identity and the Cycle of Socialization and Liberation
  6. Monday, November 13th from 4-5 pm (Zoom) - Racism in the U.S. Food System
  7. Thursday, November 30th from 12-1 pm (In-Person, Hogan 401) - Navigating and Facilitating Difficult Discussions

If you have any questions, concerns, or would like more information, please email or call:
jebifoundations@holycross.edu
508-793-3009