Access to Good Works

…for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit…

(Ephesians 2:18)

I am learning the hard way to choose my words carefully: People hear what they want to hear. I made the mistake of making a general statement, that when heard by someone who did not want to receive the message, applied one broad statement to a whole population. My takeaway is that people often forget that they benefit and have access to opportunities simply because they were born or live under what society has normalized.

The word privilege sometimes has a negative connotation. The reality is that some groups do have certain advantages from membership in a specific social class. Personally, if I remove the most well-known thoughts of privilege (sex and race), in America, I benefit because I am

Right handed vs. left handed

Married vs. single / divorced

Christian vs. all other religions

Heterosexual vs. LBGPQA

Children vs. childless

Formally educated vs. informal

English speaking vs. other languages

Employed vs. unemployed

Aged +18<65 vs. under 18 or over 65

Full able body vs. differently-able body

To learn more, visit http://jpfarr.com/presentations/

Workforce is a new skill for me. My experience in job training was derived from internal employer sponsored programs. I am gaining a crash course in diversity and perspectives on how people gain access to alternative training programs available to the general job-seeking public. From the crowd who does not realize how privilege grants them access, I often hear spiteful comments about people looking for “free stuff.” The reality is that prospects looking to re-tool or re-train are not looking for a “handout, but a hand up,” to the same opportunities available to the privileged class.

I tend to view processes from my perspective and personal experiences, without thinking of access from the perspective of those who do not share the same privileges that I have. I am looking for a paradigm shift in how to help more people gain access to available training. In an attempt to produce better outcomes from our programs, I challenged myself to consider how to overcome some process obstacles from the perspective of my non-privileged status. For example, how could I find out about training opportunities if I did not have home Wi-Fi, or access to the internet, or a computer? Or how could I apply for a job if the applications (paper or electronic) are available in English only? Or how would I perform on a mechanical agility test if I were left handed?

My personal learning in workforce development has become a humbling experiment in not projecting my experiences onto anyone else. As hard or different as I thought my journey has been, I never realized how much access and privilege I have had simply because of membership into specific social classes. How are you improving access to training and job opportunities for the diverse populations in your community? Feel free to comment or send me an email to latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.