Valuing Differences

Cultural diversity is more than a buzz word. The population shift in America is affecting the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service (OCES) by changing the composition of potential audiences for programs.

Oklahoma has always been a diverse state with ethnic populations of Native Americans, African Americans, European Americans, and Latinos, the latter of whom are a growing presence in urban areas and the state's southern sections. Moreover, members of each group do not share all the same values and cultures. OCES faculty and staff need to look at these differences, understand them, and become more comfortable in reaching audiences different from themselves.

Diversity is more than ethnic origin. It is also age, class, gender, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice, and other differences. The OCES faculty and staff need to be motivated and have the tools to be more confident in working with culturally different persons. Performance appraisals reflect the importance of reaching new audiences. Staff who are not effective in targeting new clients need support and information about working with diverse groups to achieve that goal.

"Valuing Differences" was an initial phase of an on-going staff development program to strengthen cultural diversity programming efforts in Oklahoma. Designed as a pilot project that could be a model for the entire Cooperative Extension System, the staff development program focused on issues related to reaching people of differing cultural values, particularly Native American, Hispanic-American, African-American, and youth gangs.

Funding from three sources made the program possible. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided $15,000 for seminar speakers, seminar materials and educational materials for a cultural diversity resource library. The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service provided a $5,000 STEP grant to initiate the project. The Oklahoma Home Economics Cooperative Extension Ambassadors Foundation supported the fourth segment of the project with a $1,700 grant.

The goals of the "Valuing Differences" project were:

• To help Extension staff value human differences as demonstrated in newsletters, program materials, new releases, and teaching.

• To increase participation, leadership, and influence of diverse membership of county Program Advisory Committees to develop targeted programs for new, diverse audiences.

• To increase the ability of Extension staff to work with differing value structures (cultures) as evidenced by efforts to reach new audiences in their educational programs.

To evaluate the progress toward achievement of these goals, the following three questions were asked:

• Have 30% or more of participating program staff increased the diversity of membership on their Program Advisory Committees? (24% accomplished this goal; another 44% plan to within the next year.)

• Have 20% or more of the participating program staff developed programs and materials targeted to, or reflective of, diverse audiences, according to the goals the staff member developed? (72% have done so; another 28% plan to do so.)

• Have 10% or more of participating program staff built collaborations with members of a diverse group to develop long- term program relationships based on their written goals? (80% have done so; another 24% plan to do so.)

There were four phases to the "Valuing Differences" project. The strategies included a general overview of diversity and then experiential learning activities.

Phase 1: The general seminar featured Gae Broadwater and Alice Meade from the CES National Center for Diversity as the session leaders. "StoryPerformances," a theater troupe from St. Louis, presented a powerful session on cultural differences and led a discussion following the performance. Local resources included a Seminole Fancy Dress Dancer and an Oklahoma music historian. More than 50 Extension staff members participated in the seminar at a retreat center near Seminole in February 1995.

Phase 2: Extension staff who wanted an in-depth experience and to "get out of their comfort zone," participated in the other segments of the program. Since these segments were more personal study and research, up to fifty persons were accepted. Four small groups of ten or fewer visited in the communities of diverse populations throughout the state for two-to-three days in April and May. Extension people worked with Native Americans (Comanche and Arapaho), African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, or youth gang members, or agencies working with these populations in Oklahoma City, Langston, Tulsa, Tahlequah, Lawton, and Arapaho.

Phase 3: The third part of "Valuing Differences," held in June, saw Broadwater and Meade returning to lead the "debriefing and processing" session. Approximately 30 participants shared insights gained from their experiences and developed some overall concepts to share with all staff who work with people different than themselves. They developed goals and plans for using their new knowledge in work settings.

Phase 4: Another experiential opportunity was held the last week in August, focusing on the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Muscogee Creek Nations. The August session had its own debriefing session with the same results.

The project was evaluated from August to December, using several evaluation methods. First, there was an evaluation of the February seminar to indicate knowledge and/or attitude change. The result was that staff learned more about various communities in the state as well as about themselves from the experience and thought more of their colleagues should have attended. The second component was a pre- and post-test used with staff members who participated in all sessions. There was a positive increase in knowledge gained by all participants. The third evaluation was the debriefing sessions themselves. Sharing and processing their learning and reactions provided insight to all who were involved in the discussion.

There have been several achievements resulting from "Valuing Differences." There is a greater awareness of cultural diversity and pluralism within the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, and participants have a greater comfort level in reaching out to new audiences and potential clientele, as evidenced in the debriefing session discussions.

Participants, a mixture of all positions and subject matter areas, learned more about the history and diversity of Oklahoma. They gained new resources for program development within the state and through the National Center for Diversity. In organizing "Valuing Differences," contacts were made with groups and agencies OCES had not collaborated with in the past.

In addition, the project has opened the door for future work with diverse audiences, including:

• Expansion of audiences for Extension programs through development of educational efforts based on the knowledge gained in the "Valuing Differences" experiences.

• An increase in the diversity of membership on Program Advisory Committees.

• New collaborations with organizations and agencies that support diverse populations.

• Continuation of cultural diversity and pluralism education for OCES.

• An increase in the diversity of OCES staff.