Welcoming & Belonging Microcredential
Our Welcoming & Belonging Microcredential program provides local businesses, chambers of commerce and community groups with foundational knowledge and best practices for creating spaces that are inclusive and respectful of diverse staff and clientele. Provided through North Country Community College (NCCC), the microcredential program and platform was spearheaded by ANCA’s Adirondack Diversity Initiative in partnership with the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and designed with feedback from local businesses, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community members, DEI professionals and educators, as well as businesses and organizations who participated in a 2021 pilot program.
Registration will open soon.
Learning Outcomes:
This course consists of a variety of activities that enable you to explore issues of welcoming
Adirondack Mountain Club staff create a fishbone diagram during a 2021 microcredential pilot of the program.
and belonging, and:
* Understand how to apply a systems approach to identifying problems before attempting interventions
* Appreciate the power of vulnerability and importance of creating emotionally safe spaces in which people can learn and grow
* Begin having comfort with the language of NonViolent Communication (NVC) technology – and be able to apply it with increasing comfort in personal/work situations to alleviate conflict and improve the ability of all to have their needs met
* Deepen understanding of culture and humans as cultural beings – and apply this to ways in which to foster a more welcoming space for your community
* Be capable of utilizing a fishbone diagram to articulate root causes and an aim of improvement
* Be capable of utilizing a PDSA diagram to help drive iterative learning cycles for improvement
* Utilize photo-voice as a method for conducting your intervention to create visually driven data
* Learn what adaptive leadership is and begin exploring your own map of leadership and how to strengthen your identity and skills as a leader
* Embrace the ways in which we exist in an interconnected dynamic system; a diverse and welcoming human community is more resilient and stable in the same manner as a more diverse ecosystem is, and our ability to thrive is codependent on the health of both of these interdependent systems.
* Be capable of helping drive cultural change within your organization and community as a leader and community organizer – seeing yourself as such a leaderCreate a more welcoming space for belonging for all humans while honoring the ecosystems of the Adirondacks
The Modules:
The course is comprised of five core modules – plus a bonus module at the end which is comprised of an interview for you to listen to.
Each module will build upon the knowledge and skill sets from prior modules and continue weaving together those components more complexly.
Each module consists of journaling activities – a skill you will be introduced to shortly.
Each module also consists of discussion forums – which provide an opportunity for you to publicly reflect on your thoughts/feelings/reflections around a topic with the group.
Other learners going through the microcredential during the same semester period will be able to thus interact with one another in this controlled discussion forum space – so we can create a dialogue among those on the same learning path and help enrich one another’s learning experience.
Module topics include:
* Module One: Learning into Vulnerability
* Module Two: Celebrating Cultural Diversity
* Module Three: Problem Identification and Photo-Voice Iteration One
* Module Four: Creating an Aim for Improvement and a Fishbone Diagram
* Module Five: Revisiting Photo-Voice
Schedule and Timing:
Expect the content for each module to take you 3-4 hours. The group facilitation exercises and photo-voice projects will also likely take an additional 3 hours to complete. If you have a more focused idea already you might execute this more quickly, others may want to take more time to get a product that will really benefit their organization. This is meant as a rough guideline for pacing. We also welcome your feedback here as you move through the learning process.
Registration coming soon!
Questions about the program may be directed to ADI at diversity@adirondack.org.