Cultural Broker Training: Frontline staff session

Join MANSO on October 28th for this two hour learning and discussion opportunity on your role as a Cultural Broker in your organization, led by Dania el Chaar.  

For Frontline staff: This workshop is intended for frontline staff in a variety of settlement organizations and positions. No prior knowledge about the topic is required.

Please feel free to share any questions or ideas with Dania prior to the workshop using this email address:  daniaselchaar@gmail.com

Presenter: Dania El Chaar holds a PhD from the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her areas of specialization include newcomer family settlement in Alberta, immigrant and refugee youth educational journeys in Canada, as well as culturally responsive teaching, among others.

She has been a key volunteer in her community, being in direct contact with newly arrived families as well as through sitting on the Immigrant Advisory Table of the Calgary Local Immigrant Partnership at the City of Calgary.

Dania has taught, published, and presented widely, both locally and internationally on topics such as family adjustment in the country of migration, culturally responsive teaching, the role of cultural brokers, and newcomer youth social and educational integration in Canadian schools. 

Frontline Staff session - Description: Cultural Brokering is the “act of bridging, linking or mediating between groups or persons of different cultural backgrounds for the purpose of reducing conflict or producing change” (Jezewski, 1990).  As frontline staff, many of you take on this challenging role, either formally or informally.  This workshop is intended to provide you with support in your role, to build on your existing knowledge, and to discuss challenges that you have encountered, including establishing boundaries, managing confidentiality, and setting expectations.

• Goals for frontline staff session
  • Introduce the concept of cultural broker from vantage point of frontline staff
  • Build on the knowledge of frontline staff as cultural brokers to gain a better understanding of the process and to pinpoint challenges they might have faced in the field 
  • Give frontline staff some tools they can use to face challenges in their work as cultural brokers  
  • Familiarize frontline staff with current trends in hidden racism in Canada and the role of culturally responsive practice in counteracting it.
     
• Outcomes for frontline staff session
  • Identify, through the understanding of cultural brokerage, how frontline staff's work impacts newcomers’ journeys 
  • Compose a list of challenges they have been faced with, or they think they might face in the future 
  • Devise a range of tools for most of the challenges identified in this workshop to help cultural brokers in the field of settlement.  
  • Equipped with better knowledge about hidden racism and tools to counteract it, through a culturally responsive practice lens, frontline staff will be better prepared to deal with these issues

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• This is an online event. You will need to have access to a computer/ laptop or other devices with a webcam & microphone, as well as an internet connection.
• Accessibility accommodations are available upon advance request. If you have any questions, concerns or inquiries, please send us an email at info@mansomanitoba.ca or call 204-272-0872.
• MANSO has a PD access fund for our Full members and Friends of MANSO members. Please click here to apply for the fund (learn more about our cancellation and/or reimbursement policy here).