Alberta's health and social service organizations serve a broad range of cultural sectors and manage a number of racial challenges on a daily basis.  Some important issues facing these sectors:

• How do we ensure our providers stay up-to-date on racial and cultural developments?
  
• Does our organization unintentionally discriminate against certain sectors or populations?  Do we have prejudicial policies or barriers in place?
  
• Is our organization doing the best it can to reach out to vulnerable or under-served populations?
  
• How can we advocate for our clients on a broader, community level?
  
• Is our professional staff prepared to become champions for a culturally sensitive approach to care and service?
  
• Is our professional staff reflective of the ethnic and cultural society we work within?

The Centre for Race and Culture's (CRC) cultural awareness team has had ongoing success in both education and business. Our team is preparing to build similar capacity with the health and social services sectors by focusing on the skills, competencies and workflow processes at professional and organization levels.

Cultural Crossroads professional development is customized to meet the needs, priorities and desired outcomes of your particular organization or team.  Delivery generally involves workshops, coaching, planning and/or follow-up to address these core cultural themes:

• Cultural awareness of self and others
• Communication among and within cultures
• Culture, race and faith-specific knowledge (e.g., Sudanese, Aboriginal, Muslim, Sikh, etc.)
• Improving workplace relationships and performance
• Hiring and retaining a diverse work force
• Preparing existing staff to work within an increasingly diverse work force
• Strengthening capacity to manage cultural misunderstandings and conflict
• Recognizing discriminatory attitudes and behaviours at work
• Health, safety and bottom line issues related to culture
• Increasing capacity to perceive and remove discrimination from organizational functioning
• Appreciating the strengths and gifts that culture offers

Contact CRC today to find out how we can be of service.