Testimonial

NCBI One Day Workshop Welcoming Diversity and Reducing Prejudice : A personal experience

On the train down to London to attend the workshop, I was one of the thousands of anonymous commuters, not wishing to stand out, not wishing to be different to the mass of moving people keen to protect their personal space.

A warm welcome from NCBI staff and then I was in a small room with strangers, uncertain of what the day would have in store.

The ground rules for the day were set and helped reaffirm that the day would be challenging but that there was a mutual respect between us all.

An ice-breaking exercise helped me to be more comfortable in the situation and the first of the day's much laughter and smiling broke out.

I was then "prised out of my shell", in stark contrast to that sense of anonymity on the train. I was faced with my own prejudices and misconceptions and having to speak out about them. Frankly, this was deeply uncomfortable. The facilitators were obviously highly experienced in this situation and supported us all in the exercise.

We then broke up into pairs and discussed our feelings and experiences. I learnt much from this, and felt receptive to learning more, not treating issues of differences between groups as something in the "too difficult" box.

After lunch there were powerful stories from people who had experienced prejudices. I was one of the people up at the front who recited a personal tale. It was an amazing experience to let stuff really come out and see people I had never met until 5 hours earlier, listen to me and show warmth and support.

A session about tackling prejudice then gave useful practical tips on how to actually say to yourself, "no, I'm not having that, I'm not letting that go by (again)" and actually confronting prejudice in a constructive manner. We then practiced these techniques, though I was aware that this allowed me to only really "get a feel" for it and that I would need to practice these further.

By the end of the day I was feeling mentally exhausted, but it was a liberating experience to be able to say to the group that I felt it was ok to be who I am, to be actually proud of who I am, and not to be afraid of making mistakes in exploring differences but to "go out there" from a solid position of self-belief.

Quite some day!

Jake Thrush, 17 March 2006

NCBI one-day Workshop

Well what can I say? Twice I have participated in this workshop and each has brought more awareness to my perspective on the similarities, differences and issues within diversity. Every participant brought a fresh perspective to the group.

It was amazing to see that by sitting in a room with 12 people; I was in fact, sitting with the world! I discovered how many facets there are to my identity and what has become a part of me. And this was true of everyone else participating in the workshop. The exercises we did created awareness of the different religions, heritages, nationalities, genders, histories, upbringings that we each had. We had the opportunity during this workshop to raise awareness of the numerous identities that we have in our make up. We celebrated the wonderful individuals we are.

The group explored the prejudice that occurs and is practised by those of different cultures. During three interactive activities, we chose an identity that we didn't associate with as being part of our make up. Each of us then shared with each other, our first thoughts of that particular identity. The challenge continued, as we shared what we felt oppressed a section of society that each of us identified with. Finally to round off the three highly informative activities we shared what we loved about those same identities, celebrating the successes and the positivity of being of that particular identity.

NCBI's workshop continued to successfully increase our awareness of how groups can be perceived and unintentionally mistreated. In groups we shared experiences of how we have been perceived and mistreated because of our identities. We explained what we did not want people to say about our groups. For example, black women being perceived in society as being 'exotic fruit', 'not bright' or 'aggressive'.

As we listened to explicit examples of how some participants had been mistreated, we committed to taking action to stop such mistreatment, in our day to day lives. We were all touched by the different stories we heard, stories that triggered anger, frustration, empathy and adulation for the person sharing their story. I felt all of these things as I was reminded yet again, that much of the mistreatment comes from professionals in authority and those who are in the role of nurturing, advising and teaching people. We promised each other and ourselves we would take action to personally prevent further mistreatment taking place around us.

How could we do this? Through role play we learned how to effectively intervene the attitudes and beliefs that lead to someone making a prejudicial comment. The techniques involved listening, coaching and working with people to alter their way of thinking and their perceptions of others.

I embrace every person to be unique, to have their own story and to be different. However the NCBI workshop in Welcoming Diversity and Reducing Prejudice continues to remind me that we still have some work to do to break down the barriers between races, genders, religions, ages and many identities. The workshop reminded me that whatever the perceptions of my identity as a black woman, I can be proud of what I am as well as who I am. And I can help others to welcome diversity, and not judge our differences in a bigoted, narrow minded way.

Alison Reeves

Life Coach

2 November 2006