Awareness Phase Year 1

The first purpose of this course will be to help probation staff, supervisors, and management to become aware of their own unconscious and implicit bases and how these biases impact the way they interact with each other as well as with probation clients (and their family) and the wider community (including interfacing with other agencies).

The second purpose will be to create strategies and practices within the departmental daily culture that will reduce opportunity for ongoing unconscious and implicit biases.

The third purpose of this course will be to actively eliminate workplace biases and officer to offender biases. The instructor will facilitate targeted interventions and exercise aimed at alternating perception, attitudes, and actions of participants. The content of the course will be designed to transfer back to the workplace through concrete instructions of actions to take for each situation.

Practice Phase Year 2

Given our current social, political environment, cultural competence is critical to achieving success in the law enforcement setting. Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together as a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency, or those professional to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. The unobservable psychological impact of implicit/explicit bias on coworkers, the public, defendants, community-based organizations, subordinates, inmates, etc. can go largely unnoticed until the threat of a class action suit or case of excessive use of force brings them to light.

Interpersonal competence in cross-cultural situations is the key to creating environments that are safe so that law enforcement can fulfill our mission of protection and service. Understanding the components of cultural competence leads to improved decisions/behaviors while working with probationers; children and adults.

Practice Phase Year 3

This workshop will promote conscious competence regarding microaggressions, implicit bias and talking about differences. We’ll start by defining terminology including unpacking the various types of microaggressions. Participants will explore ways to interrupt microaggression discrimination in progress by developing scripts of what to say when they see or hear something and how to support the person at whom the microaggression was directed. Together we’ll practice how to rephrase common microaggressions to say what you mean and not offend people when you speak.

Sustainability Phase Year 4

This training covers LGBTQ language, including those understandings required to comply with PREA guidelines for LGBTQI and GNC clients. It covers language, concepts, suggested practices, policy, and procedure suggestions. The training allows for open discussion, interview practice and procedure walk through.