Diversity & Inclusion Trainings for Teens
After participating in a course called Students Educating Each other about Discrimination (SEED) while in high school, I knew that were so many valuable and important ways for youth to lead in diversity and inclusion efforts. Today, I continue to see how young people are leading our nation and world to do better and be better. In 2018-2019, I designed and led a series of four workshop days for high school students to take a deep dive into issues of identity, diversity, and discrimination while also using their knowledge to help create additional activities for our broader middle and high school community.This is all largely based on training I received through the Justice Leaders Collaborative. My workshop series was called the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) enrichment, and it was held on the weekend over the course of several months. If you want further information on any of these resources, the activities we did, or are otherwise interested in this work, please email me at [email protected]. This page highlights each of the sessions:
- Day 1 (9 AM - 3 PM): Identities, Power, & Race
- Day 2 (2 PM - 5 PM): Social Class & Diversity Day Planning
- Day 3 (2 PM - 5 PM): Religion, Ability, & Immigration Status
- Day 4 (9 AM - 3 PM): Gender, Sex, & Sexual Orientation
Day 1 - Identities, Power, & Race
This first day was intended as a chance to start building community in the group and begin our learning and conversations about race in the United States as well as different identities and levels of power. Included below are the slides used to guide the workshop for the day as well as the homework assignment students had to complete before our next session.
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Day 2 - Social Class & Diversity Day Planning
To accommodate students' weekend schedules, our second (and third) workshops were only for three hours in the afternoon. This one focused on understanding social class and having students start planning and brainstorming for our school-wide "Diversity Day" activities, which the students subsequently decided to re-brand and call "Equity, Diversity, Justice, and Inclusion Day" or "EDJI" - pronounced like "edgy."
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Day 3 - Religion, Ability, & Immigration Status
Many students found this day to be covering topics that we often "overlook" when talking about diversity and inclusion. Although we did not immediately remedy that in our school, in the 2019-2020 academic year, student leaders from this workshop helped to create a workshop for our school-wide Equity, Diversity, Justice, and Inclusion day around ability and disability.
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Day 4 - Gender, Sex, & Sexual Orientation
Although I would typically move these topics earlier in the workshop series, I wanted to be sure we had a full day to engage with and discuss this content, so to fit with competing schedules this had to be our last session - with no homework to follow up.