• One Day

Target group:

• All Professional staff and /or volunteers

No of Participants:  16

Synopsis:

This programme aims to give the professional staff and volunteers an opportunity to review their learning and practice in relation to Merton Social Services' Anti-Discriminatory Policy and current legislation. Participants will be given the opportunity to identify the issues which they would like to address and what they would like to achieve during the day.

Opportunities will be given to review how we come to hold the values which we have and how they are based on the context in which we grew up and developed, that is our tradition and our culture, our neighbourhood and our family. The course continues to look at the values we share across cultures and to explore similarities and the differences in values which exist between cultures.

The course helps staff to identify some of the differences which exist in the style of communication that we use. How we express ourselves verbally and non-verbally. The course then continues to look at the impact of cultural differences on our expectations of ourselves as professionals and of the people whom we work.

Staff will be given the opportunity to look at the way in which we sometimes provide services can discriminate against individuals and client groups. The course will be brought to a conclusion by encouraging staff to formulate a personal action plan for best practice so as to be sensitive to individual differences and values of all kinds.

Aims and objectives

• To assist the staff and volunteers to understand the basis for the values we each hold.
• To provide a better understanding of legislation in the fields of equal opportunities and anti-discrimination practice
• To examine the way in which our experiences within the family, the neighbourhood, our cultural heritage and religion affect the values we each hold
• To explore the similarities and differences which exist between us in terms of our cultural values and traditions.
• To explore the different styles of communication we use , both verbally and non-verbally and the extent from which these are based on are linguistic style and centred in our culture and our traditions.
• To look at all of the above in relation to the way in which we communicate with clients and the way in which we provide services
• To formulate personal action plan for improving the quality of anti-discriminatory practice in the light of all that has been learnt.