Engaging Diversity and Improving Human Relations
			[Previous]         |	[Next]

“CHP’s facilitators are excellent. [Our program staff] will be able to apply these new competencies to situations and issues they confront.”
– Client’s Program Director

Our programs are not only stimulating and thought provoking; they safely challenge participants to confront on an ongoing basis their own and their teams’ issues of privilege, inclusion/exclusion, diversity/commonality, cultural competence, ally relationships, inequality, and acceptance of differing perspectives. Learners become better able to address a broad range of diversity issues and see the interconnectedness of discrimination within the organization and in the organization’s external relationships. They can apply new knowledge and skills, both theoretically and practically, to real day-to-day work situations.

Managers want to accommodate individual differences and also to tap their potential for enriching their organizations. Many managers, however, are particularly challenged when making presumptions about the sameness of employees, volunteers, and clients; about employees’ and volunteers’ ability to communicate effectively; and about the organization’s tolerance for change and ambiguity.

While CHP believes that a diverse group brings with it strengths that are attributable to its very diversity, we do not impose outcomes on our clients. We prefer customized assessment, design, and implementation over any preconceived, or “canned,” approaches. We conduct training programs, train trainers, perform assessments, make technical assistance site visits, intervene in crises, provide phone or online consultation, develop material or curricula, and revise existing materials. Finally, we only seek strategies for sustainable improvement.

Since 1978, CHP has provided training to Peace Corps Volunteers. As the Volunteer population increasingly came to mirror the rich demographic and ideological diversity of the U.S., CHP developed specific methods and activities to foster an environment of tolerance and respect among participants and to guarantee each trainee access to every learning opportunity. As a logical extension of this experience and commitment, we began assisting other organizations to confront issues related to diversity. We have provided training and technical assistance to many nonprofit organizations, state education agencies, U.S. territories, and American Indian tribes.