Managing diversity provides an opportunity to learn and grow through respect, understanding, and appreciation of differences. Through enhancing cultural awareness and providing resources to support making a case, building capacity, and launching diversity initiatives, participants will gain tips and strategies for supporting workplace diversity.

Do You Have to Be One to Help One? Being Culturally Relevant in the Midst of Diversity

Our world is increasingly complex – influenced by a global economy, satellite television, the Internet, and, in Canada, a “cultural mosaic” rather than “melting pot” approach to diversity. In Toronto, Ontario, 25 years ago only “one in seven residents was a visible minority while today the ratio is more than one in three. Fourteen per cent of GTA dwellers have some form of disability; an estimated 450,000 are gay or lesbian; 42 per cent are in the religious minority; and 2.1 million were born outside of Canada".¹ As career management professionals, to help diverse clients, do you have to come from the same ethnic or cultural background? Do you have to be one to help one?