Title: NVAA Learning Activity: Chapter 8: Respecting Diversity: Responding to
Underserved Victims of Crime
Series: Training Manual
Author: Office for Victims of Crime and National Victim Assistance Academy
Published: June 2002
Subject: organizational leadership
4 pages
3,950 bytes

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NVAA Learning Activity

Chapter 8: Respecting Diversity: Responding to Underserved Victims of Crime

INSTRUCTOR GUIDELINES

Key Concepts/Objectives to Emphasize in Instruction and Learning Activities:

1. The vast array of cultural differences in the United States. (8-1 to 8-31)
2. Principles of culturally-proficient interactions with crime victims. (8-3 to 8-6)
3. Specific practices of culturally-proficient victim services. (8-6 to 8-14)

Objective:

1. Understand what it feels like to be categorized or prejudged based on limited
information about who individuals are.

Description of Activity and Faculty Guidelines:

The culture in which we are raised greatly influences our attitude, beliefs,
values, and behavior. In order to provide sensitive and effective services to
victims, witnesses, and survivors from cultures that are different from our own,
two things must occur:

o An awareness of our own cultural values and beliefs and recognition of how
they influence our attitudes and behavior.
o An understanding of the cultural values and beliefs of the agency and its
employees and how they influence our attitudes and behavior.

It is important that the instructor for this exercise be comfortable with and
skilled at working with potentially sensitive discussions and reactions concerning
diversity issues. The instructor passes out the student worksheets, and asks
each student to complete it individually. Then the instructor facilitates a full
group discussion (orally, without tear sheets), utilizing the three questions on the
worksheet:

o Advantages/disadvantages?
o Anything missing from the descriptions?
o How did it make you feel?

Can Be Utilized As:

__X__ Individual Activity
_____ Small Group Activity
__X__ Large Group Activity

Anticipated Amount of Time Required: 20 Minutes

o 03 minutes to distribute student worksheets.
o 08 minutes for students to complete worksheets.
o 09 minutes for full group processing of student responses and feelings.

RESOURCES NEEDED  (Please check all that apply:)

_____ Tear sheets and felt pens
_____ VCR/monitor
_____ Overhead projector and screen/LCD and laptop
_____ Blank overhead transparencies and overhead pens
_____ Masking tape
_____ Index cards
__X__ Individual or group worksheets
__X__ Timer
_____ Other (please describe):

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STUDENT WORKSHEET

ASSESSING YOUR OWN SOCIAL IDENTITY

"Who Am I?"

Instructions: Circle all items in each of the four columns that best describe you.

A
Lower Class
Middle Class
Upper Class
Militant
Radical
Liberal
Moderate
Conservative
Indifferent
Republican
Democrat

B
Anglo Saxon
American
White
Black
Negro
Hispanic
Latin American
African-American
Irish American
Asian-American
Immigrant


C
Female, Male
Married, Single, Separated
Wife, Mother
Father, Husband
Stepparent
Grandparent
Aunt, Uncle
Daughter, Son
Sister, Brother
Grandchild
Niece, Nephew
     
D
Business Person
White Collar Worker
Professional
Technician
Blue Collar Worker
Skilled Worker
Student 
Service Provider

I best describe myself as [pick one from each column]: 

Column A ________________

Column B ________________                      

Column C ________________

Column D ________________                      

1. What is the advantage and disadvantage of being this type of person in my
professional life?

2. Was there something that you would like to add to each column that
describes you, but it is not on the list? Why? 

3. How did these descriptions make you feel?