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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lens - February 20233/31/23, 9:17 AM The Lens - February 2023 https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/IAIOWA/bulletins/34900ab 1/3 We only use cookies that are necessary for this site to function to provide you with the best experience. The controller of this site may choose to place supplementary cookies to support additional functionality such as support analytics, and has an obligation to disclose these cookies. Learn more in our Cookie Statement. The Lens - February 2023 City of Iowa City sent this bulletin at 02/20/2023 10:00 AM CST Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. February 2023 | The Lens is a newsletter to expand conversations on equity, inclusion, belonging, and access. Informed, Effective Volunteering Many people and organizations want to make a difference by volunteering. But how can you know if your efforts are truly positive as opposed to potentially causing harm when you meant to help? Some approaches to volunteering - while well-meaning - can negatively affect the dignity and autonomy of the people volunteers mean to assist, making them feel othered, disrespected, or stigmatized. HOPE Worldwide offers some ways to ensure efforts to help are needed, wanted, and respectful: Be sure your leadership team is informed. Are members of the community you will engage included? Is there diversity in age, race, and socioeconomic status? Have members received training in respectful engagement? Strive for understanding. Do you know the culture of the community you wish to support? Do your volunteers include members of the community? Collaborate with the community. How will you select whom to support? How do you know you will actually be helpful - that what you propose to do is something the community needs and wants? Make sure your outreach is accessible. Be sure your programs take place in ADA-accessible spaces and in languages understood by the community you are serving. Beyond the basics, however, are considerations such as transportation to and from the programs (public or provided), child care, timing (hours when your audience is not likely to be at work, school, or religious observance), etc. Create a personal connection and repeated contact with those you are engaging with. Instead of swooping in to “save the day,” never to be seen again, provide programs or outreach that fosters long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between volunteers and the community. Support existing strengths. Consider how you can amplify the strengths of the community rather than only addressing needs. How can you help people to help themselves? Fundraise and advertise respectfully. Avoid depictions of the community that exploit or demean its members. If you were a member of the community, how would you feel about the way the advertising portrayed you? More details regarding these and many other tips for specific situations are available from HOPE Worldwide here. Neurodiversity in the Workplace Employers have made and continue to make progress in addressing gender and racial diversity in the workplace. There's another facet of identity diversity in need of additional efforts, however: neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is a term coined by Australian sociologist Judy Singer in the late 1990s. While definitions of neurodiversity are broad and far reaching, all are unified by acknowledging the different ways in which people cognitively interact with and experience the world while not placing undue merit on any single way of navigating the world. Neurodiversity shifts the way people interact with perceived Subscribe to updates from City of Iowa City Email Address e.g. name@exam Subscribe Share Bulletin 3/31/23, 9:17 AM The Lens - February 2023 https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/IAIOWA/bulletins/34900ab 2/3 disability. Instead of the goal being ‘curing’ neurodivergent people, this concept suggests the goal should be working with neurodiverse abilities and examining, instead of the individual, the social barriers that often result in exclusion of neurodivergent people. Neurodivergence encompasses a broad range of neurological conditions, including not only people on the Autism spectrum, but also those who have dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, and social anxiety among a number of other disorders. In the United States it is estimated that 1 in 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls have autism. Still, neurodivergent people are an underemployed section of the populace with unemployment rates estimated to be as high as 80 percent. Yet, neurodivergent people often offer the workplace a bevy of desirable skills because of the ways in which their differing abilities influence their behavior socially. For example, neurodivergent people may possess valuable skills like enhanced pattern recognition, exceptional memory, and mathematical skills. A workplace willing to shift to better accommodate neurodivergent candidates may also experience the benefits of a neurodiverse staff. Such accommodations might include: Providing headphones to employees overstimulated by workplace sounds and fidget devices to those who focus better when moving. Providing clear communication that avoids euphemisms. Giving advance notice when plans change. Informing employees of workplace etiquette without assuming the improper behavior is deliberate. Operating with kindness and patience for one another. Many companies are already involved in working to become more accessible. SAP, Microsoft, EY, JPMorgan Chase, and Ford Motor Company are all members of the “Neurodiversity @ Work Roundtable,” a collective interested in discussing and implementing ways to work with neurodiversity in hiring processes. There are also employers that work with other companies to help hire neurodivergent people. Potentia is one such company and works to ensure positions for neurodivergent candidates, establishes recruitment processes that identify qualified neurodivergent candidates, establishes a hiring process that allows applicants to demonstrate skills, and offers ongoing counseling. All work begins with acknowledging the aims of the neurodiversity movement as laid out by Neurodiversity Hub, an organization dedicated to neurodiversity in business: Shift mainstream perceptions of marginalized NeuroMinorities. Replace negative, deficit-based stereotypes of NeuroMinorities with a more balanced valuation of their gifts and needs. Find valued roles for neurologically marginalized people. Show that all society benefits from the incorporation of NeuroMinorities. Upcoming Events On March 2, in recognition of Women’s History Month, the Office of Equity and Human Rights is pleased to host “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories,” presented by Traci Sorell. Sorell writes award-winning fiction and nonfiction for young people. The presentation will share how Sorell came to writing from a career in law, why stories centering on Indigenous Persons and Nations are critical for everyone to know regardless of age and ways in which she shines a light on women and other overlooked groups in contemporary US life. Additional details, including how to register, can be found here. On April 19, in person at the East Side Education Center at 1:00 p.m., the Office of Equity and Human Rights will show the film The Boys of Baraka, with context, commentary, and discussion by Dr. Stephanie Dipietro of the University of Iowa. Dipietro, while at the University of Maryland, taught one of the young men featured in the film. The Boys of Baraka follows twenty boys from Baltimore, Maryland who spend their seventh and eighth grade years at a rural boarding school in northern Kenya. You can learn more about the film here. The Office of Equity and Human Rights is in the process of arranging an appearance in May by author Adrienne Berard, to discuss her book Water Tossing Boulders, about the first US Supreme Court case to challenge racial segregation in public schools—30 years before Brown v. Board of Ed. Why isn’t this story as widely-known as Brown? “Because,” says a descendant of the plaintiffs, “we lost.” Subscribe to our listserv for details as they become available. 3/31/23, 9:17 AM The Lens - February 2023 https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/IAIOWA/bulletins/34900ab 3/3 Questions? Contact Us STAY CONNECTED: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: Manage Preferences | Unsubscribe | Help Powered by Privacy Policy | Cookie Statement | Help