Bridge Conference 2019

This session focuses on how we can best deliver services cross-culturally, working with refugees, immigrants and different cultural populations. We will discuss why culture matters and how it can create barriers in service delivery. This session hopes to motivate participants to be more culturally curious, while discussing how service providers can build an intercultural identity that unites staff around common goals while respecting and honoring the subcultural identity of children and their families. It is designed to increase cultural responsiveness while serving and interacting with children and their families from different cultural backgrounds. One of the goals is to heighten awareness of meeting social and emotional needs in culturally appropriate ways. The session will include interactive exercises that will help the audience to understand our own cultures, perspectives, biases, and beliefs so that the needs of individuals we serve can be met. We will emphasize the benefits of celebrating cultural differences in serving families from different cultural backgrounds.