Last year, the Multicultural Unit at Community Services delivered a number of ‘train the trainer’ sessions for organisations aiming to develop their staff’s skills and knowledge in culturally reflective practice. Never heard of CRP? Well, it’s not a new concept, but it may be one that practitioners are not too familiar with. Unlike the old-school way of developing cultural awareness, where cultural norms and practices are learned like a rule book, this approach suggests that our focus should be on our own culture and values… how we see the world and have beliefs and assumptions of others that are impactful in our work with multicultural clients.
I was fortunate enough to sit down with Janet Irvine, who has developed and facilitated these sessions, to discuss the keys areas of Culturally Reflective Casework Practice and identify ways in which we can build our skills and knowledge to better support the individuals and families that we work with. This interview has been saved as a three-part podcast series that can be listened to (or downloaded for later) on the NGO Learning Centre. We have also created visual podcasts (vodcasts) for those who prefer to watch and listen.
It is quietly surprising how far we can go in developing great rapport and relationships with multi-cultural clients with a little bit more introspection and awareness!
I hope you have a chance to listen to (or watch) this series and invite you to share your thoughts and comments here on the Learning Centre. We have also included a number of relevant resources on this subject, including the training package developed by the Multicultural Unit, which can all be accessed and downloaded from the Resource Shelf. Have your own resources that could be added to the library? Simply click the Share a Resource tab to upload documents.
We hope you enjoy!
Val
NGO Training Project Officer