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UWA MBA student Fadzi Whande has told an international summit that organisations can greatly increase cultural awareness when community, government and higher education sectors work together.

Speaking at the National Summit for Courageous Conversations about Race in New Orleans, Ms Whande - a Diversity Consultant at CommunityWest - presented an evaluation of Courageous Conversations about Race (CCAR), which aims to increase the cultural awareness of staff and address racial inequities.

Based on the successful North American ‘Beyond Diversity' model, CCAR is now in place at more than fifteen institutions across Australia and New Zealand.

CCAR was introduced at UWA in 2009 to complement the University's existing cultural competence initiatives, and the University runs a regular series of presentations and workshops.

Workshop participants are encouraged to examine their own unique racial story, understand the concept of race privilege, and use their insights to develop a more meaningful and targeted response around race and culture in a university context.

In 2013, an evaluation of the CCAR program was conducted across the higher education sector in Australia, and implementation of CCAR Protocol specific to each country's context is currently being developed at institutions across Australia and New Zealand. In addition, a partnership is being developed which will better align South Pacific CCAR efforts with the United States to enable enhanced benchmarking, collaboration, quality and consistency.

Nearly 900 delegates attended the summit from across the United States as well as other international guests from Canada, United Kingdom and South Africa.

Ms Whande presented alongside Malcolm Fialho, Senior Diversity Officer at The University of Western Australia; and Dr Matthew Farry, Associate Dean, Faculty of Social and Health Sciences and Manager Equity and Diversity of Organizational Development at Unitec Institute of Technology.

Media references

Verity Chia (UWA Business School)                                                   (+61 8) 6488 1346
Karen Della Torre (UWA Business School)                                           (+61 8) 6488 8538