First Australians: Cultural Awareness
Challenge
Since the Commonwealth Government’s Apology to
Australia’s Indigenous Peoples in February 2008, Australian workplaces
have placed a keener focus on helping to close the employment gap
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. With abundant
evidence that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
continue to experience acute social and financial disadvantage, leading
employers are now working to ensure their workplace environments are
adequately prepared to offer fair and inclusive opportunities to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
The Workshop: Breaking Barriers, Busting Myths and
Building Positive
Behaviour
Diversity Consulting has partnered with Aboriginal-owned business, KC
Consultancy Services, to produce this full-day ‘Cultural Awareness
Challenge: First
Australians’. The program has been designed to empower non-Indigenous
employees,
supervisors and managers with improved knowledge, understanding and
skills to work effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people. The workshop helps participants develop the cross-cultural
intelligence and capability to relate to their Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander colleagues, clients and members of the community with
dignity and respect.
The workshop uses a multimedia approach to
learning, integrating music, imagery and video with Diversity
Consulting’s highly engaging and interactive Diversity Challenge – a
tool that has taken learning and development to a new level both
locally and globally. This unique training methodology challenges teams
through the use of custom-designed scenarios created to confront
misconceptions, illuminate facts and build best practice skills to
foster inclusion.
Features
- Workshop co-facilitated by
Indigenous and non-Indigenous presenters
- Anonymous canvassing of
participants’ pre and post workshop attitudes using a real-time
audience polling system (clickers)
- Use of the highly unique and
internationally acclaimed Diversity Challenge training tool
- An audit conducted by
participants of current organisational engagement with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander colleagues, clients and communities
- Personal commitments to
action plans aimed at building positive relationships with Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander colleagues and clients
- A take-home manual filled
with resources and information links for assistance in ongoing learning
Diversity Consulting’s ‘Cultural Awareness Challenge: First
Australians’ is a powerful day of learning and transformation that has
been developed, and is continually updated, in consultation with First
Australian communities to ensure the highest level of content
integrity.
“Already familiar with
Diversity Consulting’s unique Challenge training methodology, ADHC
Metro North engaged Diversity Consulting in the development of an
Aboriginal Cultural Awareness training program for its regional
employees. The program has been developed in extensive collaboration
and consultation with ADHC Metro North, including the Regional
Aboriginal Employee Staff Network, Regional Aboriginal Employment
Support Officer and the Regional Learning and Development
Team.
This
one day course provides historical and contemporary information/content
about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, their
cultures, and the impact of colonisation and government policies and
practices. The Aboriginal Cultural Awareness program content draws on
the knowledge of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics,
and professionals working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples.
This training program
provides a foundation of knowledge and
skills to enable effective and appropriate communication and engagement
with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the
nation.”
Don Ferguson /
Regional Director / NSW Dept of Human Services: Ageing, Disability and
Home
Care / Metropolitan North, NSW
