ACTIONX is a project designed to enhance your skills as a diversity leader through engaging in the Journey of Self-Discovery activities and a personal identity assessment. After completing the activities and assessment, you will create an action plan to improve your cultural competency.
Part One:
In the past weeks you read Chapter 5 and learned about the Journey of Self-Discovery, which involves various self-exploration activities developed from the Grubb Institute’s Transforming Experiences Framework. As part of your ACTIONX project, you will complete three self-discovery exercises to gain insight into your journey towards cultural competence. Pay attention to your communication habits and personal attitudes as you complete these exercises.
Choose three of the following activities outlined in Chapter Five. Complete each of the three activities you chose. Take informal notes as you complete these and save the notes. You will record information about completing these later.
Group Identity Circle
LifeLine Graph
Images in the Media
Thinking About Multiple Dimensions of Diversity
The Power of Observation
Role: How Do I Want to Operate?
Part Two:
Using the models in Chapter Nine, there is an exercise outlined about identity statuses, so you need to complete that exercise. You will characterize your dominant and accessible identity statuses for race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Take notes as you do this because later you will write a narrative of what you discover.
These are the directions to complete the identity status exercise, provided by Dreachslin et. al. (2015):
Describe your major group affiliations, including race and ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Second, for each group affiliation determine whether it is an out-group minority identity such as black or Latino, female, or LGBT or an in-group majority identity such as white, male, or heterosexual. Third, reflect on your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward yourself as a member of the identity group as well as toward people who share your group affiliation and people who do not. Be frank and honest with yourself. Consider what you really feel, think, and do, not what you believe you “should” feel, think, and do. Review the status descriptions in Table 9.1 for your out-group minority identities and in Table 9.2 for your in-group majority identities.
Part Three:
You will write a paper to describe and defend all of the exercises you completed, in addition to describing an action plan. To write the paper, you must use the template provided and leave the section headers (labels) the same as provided in the template. Part three will involve a total of 4-6 pages of narrative plus the action plan table. See below.
a. Write a 2-3 page paper describing what you discovered by completing part one and part two of this project. Sections you must include in your paper are below:
a) Activities and Reflections: Describe each of the three activities you completed, what was discovered, and provide reflections about this. In addition, write about these questions. Also be sure to reflect about what your statuses mean to you and your profession.
b) Identity Statuses:
i. Which status best describes your dominant group identity status?
ii. Which statuses best describe your accessible group identity statuses?
iii. How do you know? What evidence do you have to support your self-characterization?
b. Create an action plan using the template from Chapter 5 (Table 5.1: Journey of Self-Discovery: Action Plan). You may create an Action Plan table and put it in the paper you will turn in for this project. Make sure the table has the same columns and sections as Table 5.1. Be sure to put in more detail that the example in the chapter. Use the four columns provided in the template add at least five points under each column. See example below.
c. Provide a 2-3-page narrative that describes and justifies your action plan, how you will ensure the actions will be taken, and the value this will bring to you and those you serve in the future.
