PDC Review - Fall 2006

PD Council initiates a Diversity Task Force

In 2004, the MnPDC structure workgroup took on the task of thinking about issues related to diversity within the council.  Over the last year the structure workgroup has thought and dialogued about these issues and come to the conclusion that we need a separate workgroup or task force to think about issues of inclusion and access both within the council and in the larger professional development system.  Charlotte Nitardy wrote the following diversity task force proposal, which was accepted by the executive committee of the council this spring, with the clarification that this group will look at ethnic and cultural diversity within the council, while the Resource Development and Communications workgroup will look at geographic diversity and the Executive committee will continue to look at diversity of sector representation.  We’ve been recruiting members for the diversity task force this summer and hope to have our first meeting in September. We’re excited about how the group is shaping up.  If you are interested in joining this task force, please contact Meg Thomas at mthomas@mnaeyc.org. 

Minnesota Professional Development Council

Diversity Taskforce

Proposal

Question: When thinking about professional development we have often asked: “How do we get more people of color at the table”. 

Thinking about the impact of racism on children’s development and thinking about the gaps in our knowledge of early childhood development including:  How do we effectively arm children of color against racism?”  If we don’t yet know how to teach practitioners this skill, how do we make sure we are recruiting and retaining people who already have this skill? Better yet, why do we expect people of color to come to the table knowing very well that the professional development system is not meeting the needs of their community?  People of color are not going to come to the table knowing that this gap in cultural competence exists.  Adapted from Sharon Henry Blythe’s dialogue at the 9/30 MPDC quarterly meeting.

Taskforce Purpose: With the above in mind, the purpose of the task force is to ensure that the MnPDC facilitates a climate that aims to help MnPDC remain accountable to serving communities of color and other historically underserved groups living in the Minnesota. 

Taskforce Objectives:

• Review all current initiatives and programs being implemented to achieve diversity.  Highlight a few successful models that could be adopted by MnPDC. Recommend a model to improve the climate for the diversity and create a diverse PD community
• Assess the status of the MnPDC in achieving a diverse MnPDC.  Identify issues/challenges that may arise in creating an inclusive environment (example: lack of cultural competence in existing PD leaders as mentioned above).
• Make recommendation on how/what improvement are needed to achieve a more diverse professional development community… that not only preaches but practices inclusiveness and participation of all early childhood professionals
• Facilitate Minnesota diversity efforts.  We have had a lot of diversity efforts and initiatives in Minnesota, but they haven’t been connected and integrated enough to show the impact of what could be accomplished if everyone worked together. 
• Ensure that Minnesota PD system and institutional policies are inclusive and address the needs of our diverse constituencies. Create an affirming environment that celebrates and reflects Minnesota’s early childhood professional diverse population.
• Provide strategies to recruit and retain a diverse and underrepresented professional development leaders:

• Recruitment –Develop a suite of supportive resources that assist workgroup members in recruiting diverse professionals
• Retention - Develop a suite of supportive resources that assist MPDC workgroup members in retaining diverse leadership
  o Development of diverse early childhood leaders