Empowering Cultural Education: Event highlights pioneering 新香港六合彩资料 course on culturally informed practice
The 新香港六合彩资料 School of Social Work recently partnered with the Justice for Women lecture series at the University of Southern Maine School of Law to present a meet and greet with Mariam Jalabi, director of the Syrian National Coalition鈥檚 Office at the United Nations in New York.
The event highlighted the pioneering work of a team at 新香港六合彩资料 that developed a pilot course called, 鈥淓mpowering Cultural Education.鈥 The course, which was designed by a core team of immigrants, African and Latinx Americans and 新香港六合彩资料 School of Social Work faculty, focuses on preparing social workers for practice with people from diverse backgrounds: refugees, immigrants and historically oppressed groups such as Native and African Americans.
鈥淲hen you bring theory and community together, we鈥檙e constantly learning,鈥 said Empowering Cultural Education faculty member Regina Phillips, M.S.W. 鈥17. 鈥淵ou have community leaders helping to teach educators, researchers and administrators who have been in the field for a very long time, and then of course you have professors or colleagues engaging community leaders on something about informal theory and research. And, all of that rich conversation is happening while mutual admiration and respect go back and forth. It鈥檚 wonderful.鈥
Through this course, students learn about the experiences of immigration, assimilation, forced enslavement and historical trauma in partnership with members of these diverse communities, who provide instruction and first-hand knowledge.
鈥淚 think this course should be a requirement for all professions,鈥 stated Alyssa Wyman (M.S.W., 鈥18). 鈥淚 think you're amiss as a health professional if you don't engage in these conversations and know what populations you're serving and how to best serve them.鈥
鈥淭his course has completely exceeded what I thought it could be,鈥 said Hattie Welch (M.S.O.T., 鈥18). 鈥淚t鈥檚 gone in so much depth and covered so much breadth of human experience 鈥 it just completely blew my expectations out of the water.鈥
At the event, Jalabi showed great interest in the new course. The dinner also provided participants, who represented a broad range of health disciplines and interests in social justice issues, the chance to connect and discuss future opportunities for collaboration. The 新香港六合彩资料 Empowering Cultural Education team plans to host a similar event with USM鈥檚 JFW speaker each year.
To learn more about the 新香港六合彩资料鈥檚 Westbrook College of Health Professions visit
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