Intercultural Trainings

Intercultural Awareness Trainings

In 2006, Children's Health Foundation was asked for assistance in response to racial tension in a valley high school. We responded by offering an Intercultural Awareness/Anti-Bias Training with facilitator De Palazzo.

Perspectives Unlimited

• Explores cultural diversity, by building bridges of understanding.
• Teaches respect for differences among students with varying backgrounds.
• Reduces the negative attitudes and behaviors that interfere with learning and replaces them with positive actions.
• Increases awareness, acceptance of others, and respect for differences.

With these programs, and the continued support of safe school advocates and students, Children’s Health Foundation is significantly reducing the incidence of bullying and the prevalence of bias in schools. Racial slurs, jokes about sexuality, a comment about someone’s skin color—these statements have a profound, negative effect on student culture. Harmful comments like these create tensions that can simmer for weeks, even months or years, until an angry clash of cultures erupts in violence.
Between 2000 and 2003 the immigrant population in Colorado’s Roaring Fork and Garfield Districts (3,500 square miles) increased from 29% to 36% of the population. Today the percentage is even higher. Because of this rapid influx of newcomers, many school administrators, parents, and communities became more aware of a need for the successful integration of the Hispanic, Latino, and Mexican population with the Anglo population. This training teaches students to:

• Explore cultural diversity
• Learn about different ethnicities, traditions, customs, and values
• Learn about the meaning of the “isms”—racism, sexism, ageism, lookism, heterosexism—and how they influence people
• Identify characteristics and stereotypes associated with various cultures
• Work with each other to understand prejudices, biases, and misconceptions
• Build understanding, empathy and compassion for all people.

Palazzo, who also conducts the Train the Trainer Workshop, emphasizes that, “This work is sorely needed in all of our schools...because...diversity brings tension, conflict, and fear. If we don’t deal with the complexities...we’re going to end up dealing with violence.”

Sharon Moya, who directs Roaring Fork Valley trainings, hopes “to teach kids to stop for just one second before they make a judgment and ask themselves, ‘Do I really know that person? Do I know what this person has been through?’”

Students have seen a significant difference in how they treat each other. One participant commented about a “kid who would walk up to someone and let out racial slurs. He got up during the intercultural training and said, ‘I am sorry. I didn’t realize I was having that effect.’ It teaches people why you don’t say certain things.”

At one Roaring Fork middle school the students created a group called the “Diversity Team”, who organizes ‘Mix It Up’ lunches once a month. These lunches encourage interaction between different groups of children by asking students to sit with someone they don’t know and ask questions from different themes placed on the tables. These lunches were incredibly successful. The ethnically diverse student population loved interacting. Students were asking questions and conversing in Spanish. School Counselor Sue Turner believes that friendships have started to develop between the diverse populations.

In March 2008 teachers, administrators, and staff from Roaring Fork RE-1 School District completed a three-day training of trainers to facilitate intercultural understanding and acceptance workshops for students. After the training, participants created Teachers Empowering Agents of Change (TEACH). Their mission is to empower youth to become change agents in a global world, working to eradicate certain “-isms” in their communities.