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Welcome to Capital Area CASA's 14-Day Race, Equity, and Inclusion Challenge!





Welcome to Capital Area CASA's 14-Day Race, Equity, and Inclusion Challenge! 

  

Thank you for deciding to join us on this year's 14-day Race, Equity, and Inclusion challenge. By completing this challenge, this will allow us to continue the commitment to being a culturally competent and aware organization. For 14 business days, you can expect to receive an email that will allow you access to watch a short video or read a brief article. 

  

 By completing this challenge, you are eligible to earn: 

 -3.5 in-service credit hours by completing the challenge only 

-6.5 in-service credit hours by completing the challenge and attending the debriefing on Thursday, February 6,2025 at 5:30-8:30pm

  

No matter how you decide to complete the challenge, this opportunity allows you to kickstart the earnings of your required 12 in-service hours for the year.  

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to Rachelle at rsmith@casabr.org or contact the office for assistance.  

  

Day1: When Implicit Bias Becomes Explicit | Megan Fuiarelli  

  

Description: Implicit bias is inherent in all humans begins. Megan Fuiarelli believes that our goal shouldn't be to eliminate these biases but rather overcome them before they become explicit or discriminatory.  

 

 

Day 2 Video: What is voter suppression?  

  

Description: Voter suppression has a long and ugly history in the United States, and over the last two decades, it has resurfaced with a vengeance. Over the last 20 years, states have put barriers in front of the ballot box- imposing strict voter ID laws, cutting voting times, restricting registration, and purging voter rolls. These efforts, which received a boost when the Supreme Court weaken the Voting Rights Act in 2013, have kept significant numbers of eligible voters from the polls, hitting all Americans, but placing special burdens on racial minorities, poor people and young and old voters.  

  

Want to enhance your knowledge even more?? Click the link below to learn more about voter suppression. 

Video: Belonging is not about fitting in | Lola Adeyemo | TEDxTemecula 

  

Description: Lola Adeyemo takes us on a journey to belonging through her stories and experiences as an immigrant in the United States. Her talk provides stories to help individuals understand the different barriers to belonging that can exist in different spaces and concludes with a call to action that everyone can relate to.  

  

Day 3 Link: Belonging is not about fitting in | Lola Adeyemo | TEDxTemecula 

  

Discussion Questions:  

  1. What do you and others gain from belonging? 

  2. Is there a cost for belonging? If so, how do you pay for it? 

  3. Can you endlessly belong, or is there a limit to how long you can belong for, or how many things you can belong to? 

  

Day 4 Video: The War on Drugs: Crash Course Black American History #42 

  

Description: The War on Drugs is a decades-long United States policy intended to curb illegal drug use and trafficking. Long story short: it has not worked to reduce drug use or trade, and the policy has had devasting effects, especially on communities of color. 

 

Day 5 Video: What is internalized racism? | Living in Colour 

Description: What is internalized racism, how it does it affect racialized communities and how does it continue a structural advantage of privilege? 

Host Farah Nasser chats with University of Toronto professor Girish Daswani, as well as writer and communications professional, Gelek Badheysang about internalized racism, how some people of colour can develop self-hate for their community, and how to unlearn it. 

  

Day 6 Video: Power, Privilege, and Oppression  

Description: Oppression is a result of prejudiced thoughts and actions combined with institutionalized or systemic power that is formed and reinforced throughout history.    

 

Day 7 Watch: What Gender Identity Means to Today's Teens  

  

Description: What do your teen think about gender? For the last five years, SHE Media has been filming with a focus group of about 25 kids, to cover an array of topics. When we first met Bailey, Evan, Gabrielle, Julia, Juno, Jojo, Reed, Sabine, Sadie, Skye, Zaki, and the 14 other kids we interviewed, they were 9 years old. We've followed them for the past five years, and today, they’ve grown into young adults, navigating the weird, wild, and wonderful world of teen culture. 

 

Day 8 Watch: Cultural Diversity: The Sum of Our Parts| Hilda Mwangi 

Description: In this talk, Hilda Mwangi discussed cultural diversity as it relates to our ever-changing world. She shares her life story, and how her experiences forge her identity as a sum of her parts.   

 

Day 9 Watch: The Bystander Effect- The Science of Empathy  

Description: We’d all like to consider ourselves helpful people, but are we always quick to lend a hand whenever the opportunity arises? In this episode of The Science of Empathy, we tested through various scenarios, just how long it would take for people to offer assistance to someone struggling right in front of them. 

  

 

 Day 10 - Reflection 

Instead, let’s take 30 minutes to reflect on what we have listened to, watched, and noticed over the past week. 

 Below are some questions to consider as we reflect. Write your answers and bring them to the debrief. 

  1. What surprises you about what you have learned about yourself? 

  2. Your surroundings? 

  3. Your outlook regarding race equity within the juvenile justice and foster care systems? 

 

 

Day 11 Watch: The hidden cost of black hair  

 Description: Hair is an important part of black women's identity, but throughout history it has also been a target of oppression. What is the true cost of having black hair?  

 

 

Day 12 Watch: Rethinking Trauma: What Youth from Domestic Violence Have to Teach Us| Tracey Pyscher 

Description: As a society, we do not openly discuss domestic violence and yet its reality is front and center for children and youth whose lives are deeply shaped by it. The school landscape is bleak for many, if not all, youth with histories of domestic violence. They are one of the largest populations of youth being pushed into the school-to-prison pipeline. Tracey Pyscher, Ph.D, is an Assistant Professor of Secondary Education in the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University. Her research interests include understanding and naming the social and cultural experiences of children and youth with histories of domestic violence (HDV youth) and their navigation of school and critical literacy and learning 

 

Day 13 Watch: How Resilience Breaks Us Out of our Vulnerability Cage | Taryn Stejskal 

  

Description: We deepen our own resilience when we share our resilience story generously with others so they can learn the lessons of our experience vicariously. 

  

We role model vulnerability, encouraging ourselves and others to not be held hostage by the fear of being vulnerable, and instead, to step forward in vulnerability, breaking out of our vulnerability cages Dr. Taryn Marie is the #1 international expert on resilience, in both leadership and life, whose mission is to positively impact the lives of 1 billion people, through the concepts of resilience, by 2030. 

  

 

Day 14 Watch:  Don't Take the Exit on People: A Diversity & Inclusion Approach | Justin Jones- Fosu  

 

Description:  What if our automatic assumptions are causing a more divided society? In this talk, Justin Jones-Fosu shares practical ways to challenge our assumptions and encourage meaningful connections with others. Learn how to communicate better, learn from others, and make diversity/inclusion an everyday reality. A reality where we will not be defined by our divisiveness but rather by the deliberate depth of our relationships! It's time to stop taking the exit on people and drive toward a better humanity. Justin Jones-Fosu challenges people to see diversity and inclusion as someone they choose to be rather than something they are supposed to do. He is a full-time dad-e of two high-energy kids and a highly sought-after business consultant, social entrepreneur, and diversity/inclusion researcher. He is the founder and CEO of Work. Meaningful., where they partner with companies, organizations, and associations in the US and internationally to embrace meaningful work and diversity/inclusion. 

  


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