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How did DiversityWorks get started?
How can I get a job at DiversityWorks?
Do I get community service hours for participating
in DiversityWorks?
Am I too old for your program? Or too young?
Can you come up to my school to do a workshop?
How much do your programs cost?
You’re called DiversityWorks. Are you a theater
group?
A lot of people do diversity work. What kind of
diversity work does DiversityWorks do?
Where do you get your funding?
Are you affiliated with any church, or school
or government funding?
Where are your activities held?
Do you have a program for my child this summer?
Who are the staff that will be working with the
youth? How is your staff trained for emergencies?
Are all your events open to the public? How can
I get involved?
Will my child be under constant adult supervision
in your program?
A student who I know is gay and hasn’t come
out to his/her friends. Is DiversityWorks a supportive environment for
such a person?
I’m interested in joining your program but
my grades at school aren’t that great. Am I going to have trouble
getting in?
Are there pre-requisites to participate in any of your programs?
Does DiversityWorks provide counseling?
I want to come to your summer program but I have
summer school. Can I do both?
How can I join your board?
Do you have volunteer opportunities?
Is the Works a residential program and do you
have housing if I’m coming from a different part of the country?
I understand you have a library of books and videos.
How do I check those out?
Do you have a drop-in program or do I have to
be a member?
How do I get to your office? Are you accessible
via public transportation and is the office wheelchair accessible?
How involved are youth as stakeholders?
How did DiversityWorks get started?
Founded in 1998, DiversityWorks grew out of a very successful youth
development and community-building program called the Northern Ireland
Community Leadership Programme (NICLP). NICLP brought together Catholics
and Protestants for a year-long experience in skill building, service
learning, and cross-community understanding. Inspired by the transformational
work of NICLP, DiversityWorks created a youth development program that
fuses together diversity training and leadership training for young
people. Our first program ran in 1998-1999 and was made up of 17 young
people. The Works (formerly
the Summer Institute), DiverseCITY
(formerly Adopt-a-School) grew out of this first year program and Reality
Check came on shortly thereafter. Five years later, more than 5000
young people have been touched by our programs. back
to top
How can I get a job at DiversityWorks?
There are two kinds of jobs that DiversityWorks generally hires for.
One is for permanent staff
members and this does not happen very often--generally no more than
once a year--and is almost always done through a competitive open hire.
We also hire 10-12 young people each September as DiverseCITY
Reps for the year. Only past program participants (those who have gone
through The Works or a Reality Check workshop) can apply to be D-CITY
Reps. back to top
Do I get community service hours for participating
in DiversityWorks?
Some of the DiversityWorks program have a community service element
to them and you can get community service hours for these hours. We
also have opportunities for young people to volunteer their time doing
office work or coordinating some of our programs, like The Spot, for
which you can also get hours. If you are a hard worker, we can always
use your help so please contact us for more information about volunteer
opportunities.
Am I too old for your program? Or too young?
DiversityWorks’ target age group is 15-20 year olds. Young people
between the ages of 12-24 have been participants in our program and
have had very positive experiences. When young people apply for our
programs, we look much more at maturity, interest, and level of commitment
than at chronological age. back to top
Can you come up to my school to do a workshop?
Yes, DiversityWorks can come to your school to do workshops. If it is
an afterschool event that you are looking for, DiversityWorks offers
these at little or no cost through the DiverseCITY
program. During school hours, workshops fall under our Consulting
services (fee based) and are delivered by our experienced staffmembers.
In either case, we generally do not deliver workshops any shorter than
an hour and a half and prefer more time which allows us to delve more
deeply into issues of power, oppression, and social justice. back
to top
How much do your programs cost?
Most of our programs are free and open to the public. We even pay youth
within The Works and DiverseCITY.
There is a nominal charge for hosting a DiverseCITY workshop as well
as in hosting a Reality Check
workshop. back to top
You’re called DiversityWorks. Are you
a theater group?
DiversityWorks is not a theater group but we love doing theater. More
often, youth are engaged in interactive workshops, sometimes involving
role plays, that challenge participants to think differently about their
communities and work to promote justice. back to top
A lot of people do diversity work. What kind
of diversity work does DiversityWorks do?
DiversityWorks is not focused on "celebrating diversity."
While we affirm diversity and its importance, we pride ourselves on
looking deeply at oppression on the internal, interpersonal, and institutional
levels and come to our work acknowledging that there is a great deal
of injustice that will not be rectified through celebration. We aim
to give young people the awareness, tools, and support that they need
to dismantle oppression in their communities. And this spirit lies at
the heart of everything that we do. back to top
Where do you get your funding?
DiversityWorks gets its funding through six different funding streams
which are individual donors, major donors, government contracts, foundation
grants, corporate support, and earned income. We operate on a tight
budget and are always looking to develop more channels of support for
our very important work. Less than 15% of our budget goes to overhead,
fundraising, and administration, and every dollar counts. Click
here if you’d like to join our growing list of donors. back
to top
Are you affiliated with any church, or school
or government funding?
DiversityWorks is a non-religious, non-governmental, and not-for-profit
entity. We often partner with schools and community groups in order
to advance our mission of empowering young people in the Bay Area. back
to top
Where are your activities held?
DiversityWorks activities are held both in our Downtown
Oakland location (our training room is known as "The Spot")
and at community sites throughout the Bay Area. Many of the activities
are open to the public and we’d love to have you join us at one
of our upcoming events.
back to top
Do you have a program for my child this
summer?
DiversityWorks does run summer programs of varying lengths and commitment
levels. These generally include The
Works, Reality Check,
and The Spot. You can learn
more about these both through the programs
area of the website and by calling our program line at 510-763-9303.
back to top
Who are the staff that will be working with
the youth? How is your staff trained for emergencies?
DiversityWorks has 3-4 "permanent" staffmembers and 8-12 temporary
staffmembers at any time during the year. All of our permanent staffmembers
are highly skilled in youth development, leadership development, and
delivering social justice workshops. For each of our recent job hires,
we have consistently had more than 50 applicants for each position and
have thus been able to choose the candidate who we feel is a nearly
perfect fit for the job. Read more about our staff here.
Safety, both physical and emotional, is critical for the work that we
do. Towards this end, our staffmembers are fingerprinted, trained in
CPR and First Aid, and engage in ongoing youth development training
in order to hone their skills and best serve youth. back
to top
Are all your events open to the public?
How can I get involved?
Many of our events are open to the public and our list of Upcoming
Events clearly shows which events we would love to have you join
us for. A great starting place if you’d like to check out DiversityWorks
is The Spot, our drop-in program
that runs almost every Friday evening from 5:30 pm -7:30 pm. back
to top
Will my child be under constant adult supervision
in your program?
DiversityWorks is a leadership development program for young adults
and youth in our program are NOT constantly supervised by adults. We
extend a great deal of freedom and responsibility to young people in
order to help them develop their life skills and gain confidence as
they enter adulthood. We promote safety in all of our programs but also
depend on the decision-making of our youth participants. back
to top
A student who I know is gay and hasn’t
come out to his/her friends. Is DiversityWorks a supportive environment
for such a person?
We’ve been told by countless young people that DiversityWorks is
a very supportive environment for ALL young people. We consistently
have a very diverse group of young people here for programs and just
hanging out. back to top
I’m interested in joining your program
but my grades at school aren’t that great. Am I going to have trouble
getting in?
Your grades coming into DiversityWorks have no impact on you getting
in or not getting in to our programs. Once you’re with us, though,
we have a vested interested in you doing well both in school and in
life. We often find that youth who struggle in school flourish in DiversityWorks
because our learning styles are often much more active and interactive
and we also find that youth take what they learn in DiversityWorks back
to school and that their performance improves. back to
top
Are there pre-requisites to participate
in any of your programs?
DiverseCITY requires participation
in one of our gateway programs, Reality
Check or The Works. For
all of the others, there are no pre-requisites except for an interest
in the work that we’re doing and a somewhat open-mind. back
to top
Does DiversityWorks provide counseling?
We do not offer formal counseling though there is a great deal of wisdom
within the staff and the program participants. We find that young people
share things at DiversityWorks that they do not share in many other
places so it can sometimes seem like counseling on occasion. There are
no licensed therapists on staff here. back to top
I want to come to your summer program but
I have summer school. Can I do both?
Summer school and The Works
often conflict. For other programs, it depends on the timing of each
and you should call our program line to talk more about this. DiversityWorks
demands a full commitment from the youth participants so we will not
excuse youth from large chunks of our programs. back
to top
How can I join your board?
DiversityWorks is always looking for top-notch board members—adults
and young people--for both our Board of Directors and Advisory Board.
More information and applications are available through this website
by clicking here. back
to top
Do you have volunteer opportunities?
Yes. Many volunteer opportunities to suit all shapes and sizes. Click
here to learn more about these. back to top
Is the Works a residential program and do
you have housing if I’m coming from a different part of the country?
The Works is not a residential
program and we unfortunately do not have housing for out-of-town participants.
We have, nevertheless, been rather successful in the past in helping
to arrange housing for young people and can work with you to help you
do this. back to top
I understand you have a library of books
and videos. How do I check those out?
All you have to do to borrow books and videos is to come in, find what
you’d like to borrow, and leave your name (and contact info) and,
in some cases, a deposit. In the case of the film
lending library, we also are able to process requests via email
and send the videos to anywhere in the United States. back
to top
Do you have a drop-in program or do I have
to be a member?
DiversityWorks is not a membership organization and is open to all.
While we do have some programs that require an application process,
we also have two drop-in programs, which are The
Spot, held every Friday evening, and the Appreciating
Diversity Film Series, held 6 times a year. back
to top
How do I get to your office? Are you accessible
via public transportation and is the office wheelchair accessible?
Yes, and yes. DiversityWorks is wonderfully located in beautiful Downtown
Oakland, just a few steps away from most buses, BART, and several freeways.
Our office is also wheelchair accessible. Click
here for directions. back to top
How involved are youth as stakeholders?
Young people are involved at all levels of the agency. For the six years
that we have been in existence, we have had youth as board members,
staffmembers, advisors, and as paid trainers. To read more about the
youth and their involvement in all levels of DiversityWorks, check out
our most recent Annual
Report. back to top
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