Building better justice responders - cultural humility training
Our specialized cultural humility training involves working with justice sector responders (lawyers, law students, judges, etc.) to increase their knowledge on the histories and lived realities of Indigenous communities. “Cultural humility” is a step beyond mere competency and involves critical self-reflection to understand how personal and systemic biases impact the way we interact with the individuals and communities we aim to serve. Level’s training sessions provide participants with some of the tools needed to approach their work with empathy and understanding.
Level has been facilitating cultural humility training sessions with justice responders since 2012. These sessions highlight the histories and lived realities of Indigenous peoples in Canada and encourage attendees to approach their work with Indigenous communities from a place of allyship. Sessions are led by Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers, who provide a cultural teaching, often focused on humility and finding balance using traditional practices. Following this, we generally facilitate panel discussions featuring Indigenous leaders from various backgrounds, including lawyers, social workers, teachers, and police officers, who share tips and best practices for working with Indigenous communities and youth.
Our training sessions provide attendees with insights and challenges for shifting from a passive form of reconciliation to a more active one, encouraging people to embrace cultural humility rather than mere cultural competence.
Empathy Training
Empathy, or the capacity to understand or feel what another is experiencing, is a skill that is not necessarily promoted, fostered or developed through law school or the legal profession. However, empathy is incredibly important in order to effectively serve the individuals and communities that legal professionals work with. Building empathy allows justice sector responders to better understand the root causes and impacts of barriers to justice, improves communication and provides the tools to approach legal issues from the client’s perspective.
In 2017, Level began facilitating empathy training sessions with justice sector professionals, using specialized training obtained through our friends at 21 Toys. Level’s training focuses on the importance of empathy in the legal profession and helps fosters these skills through the use of the Empathy Toy.