Enhancing Cultural Competence

A Day-Long Workshop in Two Sessions

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Through understanding, management and conscious navigation of differences, organizations, professionals and employees can improve the quality of services and outcomes for the workplace and in the interactions with and delivery of services to the public and other external stakeholders.

This Enhancing Cultural Competence Workshop will be co-facilitated by Consultants Shawn Farrar and Charmaine Jefferson. The Workshop will consist of two 3-hour sessions (9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm) on March 23, 2017. Registrants will be expected to participate in both workshop sessions. The Morning Session, led by Shawn Farrar, will establish the foundation for “Diversity and Inclusion Fundamentals” with a focus on strengthening internal cultural competency. Charmaine Jefferson will lead the Afternoon Session focused on “Customized Application” of the cultural competency training against individual institutional missions and the broader atmosphere of patron interests and external accelerated change and upheaval. Taken together, the two sessions are intended to provide a workshop of reference tools for greater cultural awareness and enhanced staff and customer service relations.

This workshop will engage participants in exercises designed to:

• Enhance cross-cultural communication skills
• Recognize cultural differentiation and avoid cultural miscues and micro-inequities
• Strengthen cross-cultural understanding by increased sensitivity and recognition of inclusion
• Strengthen individual and institutional capacities to lean into to cultural discomfort
• Develop more effective, productive and attractive workplace environments
• Strengthen organizational cultural competence to service and interface with patrons
• Brainstorm organizational policies and programs that define and promote diversity and inclusion as part of on-going cultural growth

Cost
BPCP Membership Organizations  – $55/per person
General Admission – $75/per person
Affiliate discount codes available to: San Diego Emerging Museum Professionals, YNPN San Diego, San Diego Museum Council. Ask your member organization for the code to receive $10 off the ticket price.

Ticket price includes materials and lunch. ($150 value!)

Space is limited! Register today!

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Charmaine Jefferson, doing business as Kélan Resources, is philosophically dedicated to integrating art, history, culture, inclusion and diversity into the DNA of education, community, business, philanthropy, and public/private collaborations. Offering customized consulting services, Jefferson brings to her work a complex depth of industry skills that include research, tactical thinking and an expectation of delivering ideas, plans and solutions connected to the client’s mission, vision and immediate and long term goals and objectives. With more than 36 years of direct hands-on nonprofit and for profit business, and volunteer charitable service, Jefferson’s specific experience includes policy analysis, facilitating workshops, media relations and presenting public lectures and speeches, as well as daily institutional management and team building, strategic planning, producing and creating public performances and programs; and building and implementing supportive relations that fostered employment and business opportunities.

In addition to operating Kélan Resources, Jefferson currently is an Executive Consultant to the Tom & Ethel Bradley Foundation, a member of The Museum Group, Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission, a Board Trustee for the California Institute of the Arts, Co-Chair of the PBS SoCal African American Community Council, and is a member of the Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative Advisory Committee for the Los Angeles County Cultural Affairs Commission. In 2016, Jefferson delivered the keynote speech “Defining Community Engagement: Community, Engagement, Meaningful…Which Comes First?” at the Smith Leadership Symposium.

As a licensed attorney, Jefferson is trained to decipher, present evidence, and debate both sides of an issue. This training has consistently served her as an executive navigating everything from public and political demands to budget reductions, fundraising, managing teams, and maintaining the flexibility necessary to be nimble and responsive to change. For 11 years she served as the Executive Director of the California African American Museum, a state agency, and Vice President of its non-profit partner, Friends, the Foundation of the California African American Museum. During her tenure she increased attendance from 35K to 100K, annual public programs from 35 to 80, and annual exhibits from 9 to 13 while curating several shows and sending several out on local and national tours. She grew the Foundation’s resources at its peak from $225K to $1.2mil; expanded the art and historic documents collection; completed to schematics a $62mil capital expansion plan for the future physical growth of the museum facility; conceived and co-produced for 9 years the highly popular live monthly Target Sundays at CAAM performances, and institutionalized CAAM’s Young Docents program providing paid employment training for high school students.

Some of Jefferson’s other past engagements included serving as Director of Show Development for Disney Entertainment Productions; Vice President of Business Affairs for dePasse Entertainment; Executive Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem; for profit Board Director for Just Toys, Inc; Acting and Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of New York; Associate Attorney for the Law Firm of Holland and Knight; and, Program Specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to professional positions, Jefferson has volunteers on a diverse range of institutional boards for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Arts for LA and as an Ex Officio Trustee for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Shawn Farrar, doing business as EHI, is a consulting Diversity and Inclusion Specialist and Fundamentals Executive Leader and Trainer with a practice that was built in and served the advancement of Southern California Gas Company (SCGC) and Sempra Energy (Sempra). Working her way through the company as an accountant she rose in leadership to serve as Director of Diverse Business Enterprises (DBE) from 1998 – 2005 expanding the outreach and inclusion of women and minority business contracts and vendors, and producing annual compliance reports to the oversight Utility Commission on company DBE spending. From 2005 – 2014, Farrar served as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for SCGC and Sempra, and was responsible for leading and implementing Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives, for the Sempra family of companies in alignment with the Company’s values and goals. She developed the corporate Employee Diversity Council and 14 local diversity and inclusion councils from Los Angeles to Mexico. Other key initiatives developed for SCGC and Sempra under Farrar’s direction included:

• Diversity Mentorship Program – Teamed leadership employees with women and minority employees to participate in a structured six-month program with an emphasis on building cultural competence and eliminating implicit bias.
• Diversity and Inclusion Programs – Developed 9 one-hour long modules on diversity and inclusion topics, delivered by Farrar and/or “Diversity Ambassadors” trained by Farrar, centered on Diversity & Inclusion Fundamentals; Thinking & Communication Styles; Working across Generations; Diversity & Inclusion Dilemmas; Our Cultural Differences & Similarities; LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender); Implicit Bias: Identifying it; Diversity and Safety: How they go hand-in-hand; Diversity & Inclusion Drive Innovation.
• Title VII Harassment Prevention Training – Developed and conducted California law mandated training for all first time supervisors and update training for existing supervisors, and implemented software systems for tracking employee participation.
• Title VII Employee Complaints – Worked with a team of 4, investigating and managing formal and informal Title VII complaints for the Sempra Family of companies covering sexual harassment, age discrimination, retaliation, disability discrimination, religion, and other issues; and worked closely on cases with the Legal Department, union leaders, and employee council peer teams to review low risk cases, address hot line complaints and hold employees accountable for their actions..
• Affirmative Action Plans – Worked with departments and human resources to build required plans for companies having state and federal contracts to insure each had goals, implemented action plans and measured workforce diversity and inclusion recruitment and outreach.
• Diversity and Inclusion Conference – Organized a diversity conference with a focus that included highlighting current concerns and issues such as gangs in customer communities; the culture impact of culture; the media affect; the impact of language on culture and bias; diverse abilities; transitioning veterans; and the culture clash of faith and LGBT issues in the workplace.

In addition to building her corporate diversity and inclusion practice, Farrar also maintained a commitment to community service. She served on the Board of Friends, the Foundation of the California African American Museum; on the Board of Young Audiences of San Diego, and served as the past Chairman of The Greater San Diego Business Development Council.