A common request from individuals is the desire to learn
strategies or techniques on how to reach diverse community members. These requests fall along the continuum of a
genuine desire to meet the needs of the changing demographics in one’s
community and not knowing where or how to start to a desire to work with a new
and diverse audience “without offending them.”
Successfully reaching and building sustained, authentic relationships
with diverse audiences entails work that needs to take place at the personal
(values, beliefs, feelings), interpersonal (actions, behaviors, language),
institutional (rules, policies and procedures) and cultural (what is right,
normal, desired) levels. Below are a
few thoughts, strategies and techniques that can support effective and
sustained efforts to work with diverse audiences.
Build and nurture
diverse networks – Much of your success in reaching diverse audiences
relies on building and nurturing relationships.
It is important to connect with both formal and informal community
leaders and help them guide and influence your work within their
communities. They are the “experts” on
their communities and should be honored as such. Building these diverse contacts may also
assist in other ways such as identifying other issues to partner on to address,
identifying future diverse employees, or learning about the history of
oppression and resiliency of the people in their community.
Be willing to
investigate issues of power and privilege – Many of the barriers and
obstacles to working effectively in diverse communities are informed by issues
of power and privilege. It is important
to be open to hearing and learning how power and privilege are impacting your
working relationships with diverse community members and working together to
identify how you can work to share power and to use privilege to support social
justice, inclusion and equity.
Work to build trust –
Probably more than anything else, building trust is central to effectively
reaching diverse audiences. Trust must
be a mutually defined relational principle that needs continuous work and
updating. It is effortful, intentional
and ongoing. Developing trust across difference requires active listening that
is focused on attempting to understand the realities of others and honors their
realities as being just as relevant as your own. Trust is centered on the
ability to reduce denial and defensiveness and a commitment to remaining in the
relationship and “at the table” as the relationship develops and when tension
or discomfort arises.
Prioritize building
and nurturing relationships with “cultural connectors” – It is important to
develop connections with individuals who can help you to better understand the
diverse communities you want to reach and serve as a liaison as you navigate
this new opportunity. These individuals
may also be helpful in understanding and interpreting cultural differences or
nuances that may be impacting your programming or outreach efforts that may be
invisible to you and your organization.
These individuals can be wonderful bridge builders with the community as
you look to transform your how you conduct your business and more effectively
reach the needs of the community.
Remain humble and
willing to learn – Although you may have a vast wealth of knowledge and
expertise on your subject or program, realize that it is just one set of
information that may be helpful to this new and diverse audience you are
wanting to work with. As an
educator/facilitator, how do you position yourself to be a co-learner in your
interactions with these individuals and connect your expertise with existing
assets and wisdom that already exist with these individuals and in their
communities? How can you also humbly
change, adapt or transform the process and content of your work to better meet
the realities and needs of this new audience?
Be aware of how often
discussion/efforts to reach diverse audiences are problematized – Make a
conscious effort to be aware of how conversations related to reaching diverse
audiences are most times described within the context of challenges and problems
not as opportunities connected to the very relevancy and mission of your organization. These conversations tend to focus on
difficult individuals or perceived cultural deficits that cause barriers rather
than systemic (organizational) rules, policies, procedures or “traditions”
(written and unwritten) that support exclusion and discrimination. Centering
these discussions on problems or challenges can also add to the fear that
individuals or organizations may already have entering into these relationships. What would be the result of a conversation
that asked the question, “What can we learn about ourselves, individually and
as an organization, if we commit to understanding the assets of diverse members
of our community and how we can work in partnership to address important issues
affecting us all?” Each of us needs to find a voice to help interrupt “problem
based” conversations and move us toward working collaboratively to build new,
more inclusive systems and approaches.
Be open and curious
(rather than judgmental and oft putting) – One of the most important things we can do when
working with or reaching diverse audiences is to be open to learning about new
ways to interpret the world, new forms of knowledge/wisdom and challenging our
assumptions and stereotypes of people different from ourselves. We need to challenge ourselves when our
thoughts and actions with these individuals comes from a place of “better
than/less than” judgment and instead
open ourselves to being curious, asking questions and taking risks which may
challenge our level of comfort or our sense of superiority.
Hire and actively
retain diverse individuals from the community – One important way to show a
level of commitment and sustainability for your work with diverse audiences is
to prioritize hiring diverse, multi-lingual, culturally aware members of the
community you hope to partner with and reach.
Hiring these individuals can send an important message about your
commitment to the community and these individuals can also bring some valuable
and needed skills to your agency. As important
as it is to hire these individuals, it is just as important to have in place a
plan to retain these individuals especially if they are being hired on grant
dollars or other soft monies.
Hire dominant group
members with culturally relevant skills – Organizations may find it
difficult to be competitive when trying to recruit diverse individuals into
their workforce. However, this should
not be an excuse for developing processes, procedures and policies which set an
expectation that all new or existing staff will develop or will possess skills
needed to work effectively across differences, regardless of their background
or position. Creating an organizational
climate that values staff with culturally competent skills can also send a
clear message about your commitment to issues of inclusion and equity that may
support your work in diverse communities.
Engage with the
audiences outside of your program or outreach effort – Being visible in the
diverse communities you want to reach is essential to the success of your
program. Your visibility should not be
tied solely to your programming or outreach efforts but should reflect a
genuine desire to know, understand and connect with community members in their
environment and on their terms. For
example, this may mean joining a community based organization or effort,
attending local events or activities, or volunteering with a community based
organization. Your visibility in the
community outside of your particular program or outreach effort will help build
trust, provide you with a larger insight into the community and possibly
develop other relational currency that will support the success of your
outreach effort as it begins to unfold in the community.
Be aware of and
challenge your biases and stereotypes of the group – Much of the
information that we are exposed to on a daily basis across and about
differences is laden with bias, stereotypes and fear. We can spend energy denying that we hold
these biases, stereotypes and fears about people different from ourselves or we can be aware when this information
enters our thinking - challenge this thinking - and find ways to replace this
information by building connected, supportive and authentic relationships with
people different from ourselves.
Listen for (and work
to understand) the complexities of the realities of these diverse groups – Fight
the inclination to try and find simple or quick “fixes” to complex, historical
and systemic legacies of exclusion, discrimination and oppression. Position yourself to listen deeply to the
complex realities that make up the lives of people different from yourself and
how there may be work that needs to occur at the intersections of identities
such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and other differences. Honor what a gift it is if a person different
from you decides to share their reality with you and work against the tendency
to disregard or minimize the impact of differences in this person’s life as it
may not be your experience or reality.
Be clear, sensitive,
creative and flexible in gathering data and evaluating program impact – There
may be real or perceived dangers or fears of providing personal information or
other data that you may need as part of your program or program evaluation. Much of these fears may be rooted in past
negative experiences with “governmental” agencies seeking information or an
unclear understanding of why this information is being collected and how it
will be used. It is important for you to
share verbally and in writing what information you will be requesting from
participants, how this information will be used and why obtaining this
information is important to your program (and hopefully to the participants). This information may need to be shared more
than once and possibly in partnership with a trusted community partner who can
help answer any questions that participants have and address any fears that may
arise. Additionally, you may need to
find culturally relevant methods to administer evaluation processes for your
work. This may include using focus
groups, using both written and oral instruments to capture impact, networking
with other agencies that have worked on collecting data or evaluating programs
with these audiences and discussing what did or did not work for them or working
with the group to identify an effective way to gather this data.
Move from savior to
partner – Too many well intentioned efforts to reach diverse audiences have
fallen short when individuals or organizations, directly or indirectly, enter
these engagements with a savior mentality.
The individual or organization feels or acts as if by their mere
presence, program or expertise, they can help save the community out of despair
or disrepair and that the community lacks the skills or abilities to
effectively address issues impacting their lives. We need to consider a more effective
approach in working with diverse audiences which centers on working with the community to address
issues in partnership, helping to make visible the assets of the community and
linking community assets with those that you bring to the table. This partnership should also reflect, nurture
and sustain some of the following core values including open communication, shared
responsibility, ways to deal with conflict effectively, equity over equality
and trust.
Celebrate Successes
– It is important to take time to celebrate successes in this process whether
they are big or small. It is also
important to honor the intentional and hard work that goes into developing and
sustaining partnerships across differences through celebrations. Celebrating successes can be another vehicle
to build more authentic, healed and connected relationships across differences.
Interested in joining with others to learn and share more
about reaching diverse audiences? Feel
free to join me for the webinar, “Beyond
the Numbers: Considerations for Working with Latino/Hispanic Audiences.” The webinar will be held on Tuesday, October
9, 2012 from 11am to 1pm (EST) and then again on Thursday, October 25, 2012
from 1pm to 3pm (EST). Participation in
the webinar will be limited to the first 40 individuals.
This webinar is sponsored by the eXtension Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Community of Practice (CoP)
Dionardo Pizaña
Diversity and Personnel Specialist
Michigan State University Extension
