course »Constructive Ways to Support Families in Care: Exploring and Healing From Institutional and Internalized Oppression

Date: 1/23/2019, 9:00 am—12:00 pm
County: Alameda County
Location: Oakland
Sponsor: Seneca Family of Agencies
Phone: 510-654-4004
“Oppressive systems work most effectively when both advantaged and targeted group members internalize their roles and accept their positions in the hierarchical relationship between them” -Hardimann, Jackson & Griffin, 2007

It is critical to examine our own positionality in relation to others and also consider how our dominant and subordinated statuses intersect to shape our experiences in distinctive ways. First, understanding the system of oppression, through four quadrants or levels, helps us break down the complexity. Then, learning how we can interrupt and work against the ways in which we have been socialized from childhood and how we have internalized the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors required for our subordination are the first steps towards dismantling oppression. This course provides participants with a “liberatory consciousness” approach to center the voices of those who are oppressed within the child welfare system. The course includes self-reflective explorations around their own personal story in relation to their work, reflecting on their own positionality. Examining and understanding the full context of ways families and youth experience oppression or how they internalize oppression is the first step in beginning to better serve and support our clients and colleagues in the child welfare system.