This blog post was written by Danya Pastuszek, Alison Homer, and Justin Williams.
In 2020, hundreds of you contributed to Tamarack’s Future Search. That process surfaced an aspiration to use the power of our network to shape a public policy plan and name shifting policy and advocating for systems change as one of Tamarack’s three strategic priorities.
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It's time to think and act big again.
That is what I thought after Paul Born asked me if I would like to join him in a series of workshops to share the ideas in his newest book, Breakthrough Community Change.
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This resource is also available in French. Click here to access the French version.
Understanding your competencies and transferable skill set is pivotal when assessing job opportunities and organizational roles. The Brock University core competencies give individuals a better understanding of the strengths they possess while outlining what could be improved upon. Within my placement, I feel I developed my communication skills the most. Below I outline how I fostered verbal and nonverbal communication, listening, and empathizing skills-- all essential to communication.
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This resource is also available in French. Click here to access the French version.
It's likely that you’ve participated in soccer, basketball, or swimming that takes place at a local community centre. One reason we all love recreation is that it provides us an opportunity to engage in our community and be socially connected. However, when there is competition, there can also be conflict, which many of us have experienced in the workplace, school, or on a sports team. In this blog, I discuss what intercultural fluency, effective communication, and conflict resolution are, why they’re important, and how they apply to our professional lives. Such experiences are based on my involvement with the City of St. Catharines fieldwork placement.
Practicing intercultural fluency means being able to understand, respect, and learn from the complex social, economic, cultural, and political nature of diverse people. This encourages inclusivity and awareness in all interactions. As a Chinese/Canadian student studying at Brock University, I’m consistently learning how to practice both my East Asian and Canadian cultures. I believe this was an advantage for me when familiarizing myself with my placement role.
I first got to know Tamarack in 2015, supporting partnerships to improve educational outcomes in Utah. Tamarack sparked thinking and action on how to center students and families with lived experiences of poverty and racism in reimagining K-12 education. The tools were practical and abundant. The stories prompted new ways of thinking. The invitations to act were focused and systems oriented.
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This resource is also available in French. Click here to access the French version.
Many people think that the development of intercultural competence is not relevant to them because they “are open to cultural differences”, they have “lived abroad or travelled”, they “speak more than one language”, they have “friends from different ethnic or cultural groups”, or they are “part of a minority group themselves”. As these experiences do support the development of intercultural competence to varying degrees, stereotypes and prejudices are embedded in us from growing up, which can affect how we treat and engage with others, even without realizing it – so think again. Regardless of your past experiences, the development of intercultural competence is a lifelong process that everyone should engage in, despite the lack of comfortability it may bring.
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