Race, Ethnicity and Human Services
In the last three decades, the demography of our region has changed dramatically and its population now includes significant numbers of racial minorities and new immigrants. This change in population has presented a unique set of challenges to institutions providing public and community service. For one, there are significant gaps in the accuracy of information available to policy-makers and program planners about these groups. Also, these groups face serious barriers to access and participation in a gamut of human services and in many cases services have failed to show effectiveness in reaching and serving racially and culturally different populations. In addition, a public and community service has confronted, with varied success, the increasing diversity of its workforce and workplaces.
This course focuses on the relevance of race and ethnicity as realities in the world of human service delivery. To explore this, the course will address current thinking on the significance of race and ethnicity in our society and its relevance in the field of human services. Is race still relevant? Is the experience of new immigrants different or the same as that of the old? How do we identify the differential impact of policies? What can be done about it? How is diversity affecting the human services workplace? These are some of the questions we will address in this course.