BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 16: PRACTICING MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCY
BY MARK HICKS. GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL, DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR.
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 10:41:32 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Wherever I go this year, leaders are telling me stories of what their congregations are doing to address issues of race and class. From film series to book groups to newly formed congregational task forces to deal with issues of oppression, the actions of UU congregations tell me that the 2006 responsive resolution [on race and class] was speaking to a real hunger in congregational life. This is a good time to build understanding and acquire competencies that UU congregations require to become truly inclusive communities. — Gini Courter, Moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Participants apply their evolving understanding and practice of multicultural competence, working in groups to create skits.
Before leading this workshop, review the accessibility guidelines in the program Introduction under Integrating All Participants.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Moving toward Multicultural Competence | 15 |
Activity 2: Challenges of Building Multicultural Communities | 20 |
Activity 3: Developing Multicultural Competence through Skits | 65 |
Closing | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
As you prepare to guide participants in developing multicultural consciousness and practices, remember that your congregation has entrusted you with leadership of this program not only to foster the participants' spiritual growth. The goal of this program is to encourage the entire congregation's spiritual growth through developing multicultural competence and beginning or deepening its life as a multicultural, antiracist, welcoming congregation. Hold your congregation and its leaders, both lay and professional, in thought and/or prayer. What are your visions, dreams, and intentions for your congregation and for its leadership?
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Greet participants as they arrive.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Light the chalice or invite a participant to light it while you read aloud the 2006 General Assembly Responsive Resolution, written by a GA delegate in response to reports of Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) of Congregation officers at GA 2006 as well as events affecting Unitarian Universalist communities of Color, especially youth, at the 2005 and 2006 General Assemblies:
Resolved, that the Delegates to General Assembly are charged to work with their congregations to hold at least one program over the next year to address racism or classism, and to report on that program at next year's General Assembly.
Share feedback from the previous workshop evaluations. Acknowledge shared patterns and observations to give participants a sense of how people in the group were thinking and feeling about the program at that time.
Remind participants of the spirit of their covenant and invite them to reaffirm their agreement to abide by it.
Share this workshop's goal.
ACTIVITY 1: MOVING TOWARD MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute the handout. Invite comments, observations, questions, and discussion. As you wrap up the discussion, weave in the following concluding points:
ACTIVITY 2: CHALLENGES OF BUILDING MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITIES (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read "The Bridge Poem" aloud or have a volunteer do so. Invite participants to share a minute of silent reflection. Then invite responses to the poem, using these questions as a guide:
ACTIVITY 3: DEVELOPING MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE THROUGH SKITS (65 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Workshop 14, Handout 3 and call attention to the reflection group lists you have posted. Explain the activity using these or similar words:
Each reflection group is invited to focus on one practice which builds multicultural competence and create a skit where this practice (or lack of it) comes to life.
Distribute Handout 2, Procedure for Creating a Skit, and invite reflection groups to work together to create skits. Allow 20 minutes for this part of the activity.
Invite each group to present its skit to the large group. Invite the audience to view the skit with an eye toward learning something about the practice or skill. After each skit is presented, ask these questions:
After all skits have been presented, lead a discussion with these questions:
CLOSING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to spend five minutes writing feedback in response to the question you have posted on newsprint.
Distribute Taking It Home. Invite participants to consider opportunities and practical strategies for building multicultural competence and to make a list of those possibilities.
Offer these closing words from Seneca:
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Extinguish the chalice.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few moments right after the workshop to ask each other:
TAKING IT HOME
Wherever I go this year, leaders are telling me stories of what their congregations are doing to address issues of race and class. From film series to book groups to newly formed congregational task forces to deal with issues of oppression, the actions of UU congregations tell me that the 2006 responsive resolution [on race and class] was speaking to a real hunger in congregational life. This is a good time to build understanding and acquire competencies that UU congregations require to become truly inclusive communities. — Gini Courter, Moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Find out if members or leaders in your congregation were aware of the 2006 General Assembly responsive resolution:
Resolved, that the Delegates to General Assembly are charged to work with their congregations to hold at least one program over the next year to address racism or classism, and to report on that program at next year's General Assembly.
If so, how did the congregation respond to the charge?
In the year to come, what will you do to bring your learning from these workshops to your congregation? Together with other workshop participants, meet with the adult faith development or programming committee, the minister, and/or other appropriate congregational leaders to plan what you will do.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 16:
HANDOUT 1: PATH TOWARD A MULTIRACIAL, MULTICULTURAL CONGREGATION
Participate in Cross-Cultural or Multicultural Conversations
Create opportunities to learn about and engage others in conversations across differences.
Live Multiculturally
Be aware and competent in talking about racial, ethnic, or cultural differences. Create policies and practices to guide your congregation to live as a single community.
Be Open to Ongoing Change
Move beyond tolerating difference; open yourself up to being changed through experiences and practices that are deepened and enriched by engaging racial, ethnic, or cultural "others."
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 16:
HANDOUT 2: PROCEDURE FOR CREATING YOUR SKIT
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 16:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: THE BRIDGE POEM
"The Bridge Poem" by Donna Kate Rushin from The Black Back-Ups: Poetry by Kate Rushin (Ann Arbor, MI: Firebrand Books, 1993). Permission pending.
I've had enough.
I'm sick of seeing and touching
both side of things.
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody.
Nobody can talk to anybody without me. Right?
I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sister my littler sister to my brother my brother to the White Feminists the White Feminists to the Black Church Folks the Black Church folks to the ex-Hippies the ex-Hippies to the Black Separatists the Black Separatists to the Artists the Artists to the parents of
my
friends.
Then I've got to explain myself
to everybody.
I do more translating than the U.N.
Forget it.
I'm sick of filling in your gaps.
Sick of being your insurance against
the isolation of your self-imposed limitations.
Sick of being the crazy at your Holiday Dinners.
The odd one at your Sunday Brunches.
I am sick of being the sole Black friend to
thirty-four Individual White folks.
Find another connection to the rest of the world.
Something else to make you legitimate.
Some other way to be political and hip.
I will not be the bridge to your womanhood
Your manhood
Your human-ness
I'm sick of reminding you not to
close off too tight for too long
Sick of mediating with your worst self
on behalf of your better selves
Sick of having to remind you
to breathe before you
suffocate your own fool self.
Forget it.
Stretch or drown.
Evolve or die.
You see
it's like this:
The bridge I must be
is the bridge to my own power.
I must translate
my own fears.
Mediate
my own weaknesses.
I must be the bridge to nowhere
but my own true self.
It's only then
I can be
Useful.
FIND OUT MORE
The UUA Multicultural Growth & Witness staff group offers resources, curricula, trainings, and tools to help Unitarian Universalist congregations and leaders engage in the work of antiracism, antioppression, and multiculturalism. Visit www.uua.org/multicultural (at www.uua.org/multicultural) or email multicultural @ uua.org (at mailto:multicultural@uua.org) to learn more.