Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice

The concept of diversity is an interesting topic; while it can be boiled down to only one or two areas, it can also encompass everything else. As an advanced practitioner, it is my role to be able to see all layers of diversity and understand how each is connected. By understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of diversity, the better equipped I will be when working with people. Since I grew up in such a diverse background, I have seen and experienced the strength of diversity and the importance of incorporating different ideas and concepts.

2.1 – Develop and implement strategies that strive to eradicate discrimination in any form

Field Evidence: Over the past year, Commissioner Geter and I have been working on creating a way in which we could help increase diversity, equity, and inclusion on the county level for Hamilton County, Tennessee. One of the first things that we did was to reach out to our constituents to see if they felt this was an area that needed to be addressed in the first place. In order to help us get this information, I created a survey and was able to collaborate with the director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs to see what suggestions she had before sending out the survey. To see the email correspondence between myself and Karen McReynolds, please click here.

2.2 – Apply self-awareness and self-regulation to manage the influence of personal biases and values in working with diverse clients and constituencies

Course Evidence: For the Winter semester of this year during my emphasis course, I was given the opportunity to write a reflection and analysis paper that focused on specific questions related to the movie The Accused (1988). In this paper, I was able to review several reactions that I had to the movie and reflect on some of the personal biases that I was able to discover after watching the film. This was assignment provided me a way in which I could see how my personal values and ideas could impact my work with clients and what I should do in order to make appropriate changes to best serve those I work with and for. To read a copy of the analysis and reflection paper, please click here.