Cultural Humility & Empathy Training
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 law students and 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.
Indigenous youth make up only 8 percent of the youth population in Canada, but they represent 43 percent of youth in prison. That means almost half of youth in prison are Indigenous. Incarceration of youth Canada has decreased since 2012, but the number of Indigenous youth in jail has steadily increased. Canada’s prisons have been referred to as the “new residential schools.”
A DISHEARTENNING STATISTIC
Why CHET?
Level's Cultural Humility & Empathy Training (CHET) responds to the overrepresentation of incarcerated Indigenous youth, lack of diversity in the legal profession, and systemic racism in the justice system.
CHET involves critical self-reflection on how personal and systemic biases impact the way we interact and fosters tools to approach our work with empathy.
What’s in the Training?
Participants will:
Increase their knowledge on the histories and lived realities of Indigenous communities.
Learn to shift from a passive form of reconciliation to a more active one.
Who leads the Training?
Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers, and anti-racism training experts provide cultural teachings focused on humility. We include discussion prompts, interactive group activities, and take home resources to put our learning into action.
What is Cultural Humility?
Embracing cultural humility rather than mere cultural competence, involves approaching work from a place of allyship and understanding. That is why we include Indigenous leaders from multiple backgrounds to provide insight on diverse cultural teachings and histories.
What is Empathy?
Empathy, or the capacity to understand or feel what another is experiencing, is a skill that is not necessarily promoted, fostered or developed through the justice system. However, building empathy allows justice sector responders to better understand the root causes and impacts of barriers to justice and provides tools to approach legal issues from the client’s perspective.
What is the Schedule?
We recommend a 2 hour training session.
1 hour Cultural Humility Training includes:
15 minute introduction with an Indigenous Elder/Knowledge Keeper and
45 minutes of anti-racism/reconciliation training.
1 hour Empathy Training includes:
15 minute presentation on empathy for Justice Sector and
45 minutes of empathy building activities and discussion.
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Participant
“This training should be offered at every law school and law society as a mandatory requirement.”
Law Society of Saskatchewan