Trinity Youth Services (TYS) continues to seek ways to evolve and develop the agency, to ensure we are creating an undeniably equitable environment for all staff members. The fluidity of an agency and its success depends on the environment that we create. For this reasoning, we’ve partnered with Claremont Lincoln University (CLU) to create a series of trainings for our staff members.
Members of Trinity Youth Services’ Diversity, Inclusion, Value, Equity (DIVE) Team attended “Equity in Action,” a four-part webinar series where faculty members from CLU shared resources and ideas relating to the four domains that make up their Claremont Core®: Mindfulness, Dialogue, Collaboration, and Change. Presenters included Dr. Stephanie Varnon-Hughes, Dr. Nita Evans, Suzanne Atkin, Dr. Robert J. Razzante, Dr. Kendra L. Smith, and Dr. David Ross.
Mindfulness focused on understanding the interconnected elements of the self to elevate leadership. Dialogue focused on active listening to empower genuine dialogue with others who are different from us. Collaboration focused on leveraging the intelligence of diverse stakeholders to find common purpose. Change focused on adapting from core process learnings to form a plan, enact and catalyze sustainable meaningful change.
“I truly enjoyed the training. I liked that it gave an opportunity for everyone to share their experiences. It also reminded me of the biases that I currently have and provided ways I can work to overcome them,” says Angel Torrientes, Training Specialist.
“With so much coming at us over the past year, the Equity in Action Webinar provided an opportunity to slow down and process some of the overwhelming events that were affecting all of us. I was able to hear other perspectives while sharing my own, and was given ideas on how to incorporate mindfulness, dialogue, and collaboration into future goals and plans,” says Gail Polk, Community Outreach Coordinator.
“I really thought it was great and necessary to learn about dialogue, a lot of the times we engage in dialogue and it may not be the right time or in the right space and learning about dialogue and mindfulness from the Equity in Action webinars was very appropriate,” says Nestor McFarlane, Team Supervisor.
Each webinar helped create mindful inquiry, skillful dialogue, effective collaboration, and positive change and growth for our DIVE members. “The opportunity to create the Equity in Action curriculum in partnership with Claremont Lincoln University has been a tremendous gift. In these challenging times, it is more important than ever to create within organizations a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, doubly so in human services organizations that directly serve populations of color,” says Cher Ofstedahl, Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you so much to Claremont Lincoln University and their amazing faculty members, TYS is beyond grateful to have been given the opportunity to learn such valuable and powerful skills for effective leadership. TYS plans on sharing these practices throughout the entire agency.
Isabel Millward-Pena, Communications Specialist
Isabel contributes content for our social media, blog, newsletters and promotional materials. She recently earned a bachelor’s degree in English from California State University San Bernardino and is currently working on her master’s degree. Isabel began working at Trinity as an intern, was hired as clerical, and was then promoted to communications in our development department. Prior to her work at Trinity, she was a substitute instructional aid and a supervisor at Starbucks. She has also volunteered as an aid at local elementary schools and notably achieved “Partner of the Quarter” at Starbucks in 2017. Isabel is an active member of Trinity’s Diversity, Inclusion, Value and Equity (DIVE) team and volunteers her time at the Children’s Foundation of America.
