PRESIDENT’S DIVERSITY AWARD – 2009

NOMINATION

ADDICTION RESEARCH TREATMENT SERVICES (ARTS)

Nomination by:  Richard Benson, Sr. Human Resources Consultant, UCD Human Resources

Diversity through Staff Recruitment/Community Service and Outreach:  Diversity of staffing within Addiction Research Treatment Services is an intentional outcome.  While that of the clientele they serve is a factor of societal needs.  Diversity exists because it is pursued, and inclusion is the “right fit.”  There is no fear of unfamiliar backgrounds and cultures and management has long discarded the “be like me” attitude of hiring (commonly known as the halo effect).  And to a much greater extent, ARTS focuses on the ability of persons to overcome difficult hurdles, regardless of what they may be, in order to become productive members of society. 

The “right fit” for ARTS is anybody willing to roll up their sleeves and work extremely hard to help another person(s) turn their life back “right side up!”  Thus, being said, diversity within ARTS is not based upon tokenism and remnants of class characteristics.  It’s not based upon selecting the most highly accomplished persons of a racial or cultural group.  Instead, it’s built upon creating equal opportunities for success regardless of what the rest of society would consider reasonable and acceptable basis for exclusion. 

To begin, ARTS diversity includes:

• racial characteristics
• cultural characteristics
• varying levels of education from GED to PHD
• gender and gender orientation
• national origin
• persons with “past” (emphasis on past) criminal history
• persons who’ve overcome substance abuse and addiction
• married, single and divorced, and remarried
• those with children and without
• veterans and non-veterans
• classified, faculty and exempt professional employees
• varying spiritual belief systems
• generational differences (staff range in generations from X to baby boomers, and everything in between)
• etc.

It’s not perfect, but it works.  To do the work they do, and to be successful, requires the ability to identify with and understand a clientele that is equally as diverse as the staff and more. 

Cultural competence is developed all day, every day, through on the job experience.  Employees are immersed in diversity and challenged by it unlike most other departments and/or organizations within the university.  The challenges come from being part of a diverse staff as well as dealing with a clientele that is equally diverse. 

Everyday staff and clients are faced with assumptions about race, ethnicity and human behavior.  Stereotypes have to be shattered and biases broken, because what everybody at ARTS can tell you is that criminal behavior and substance abuse is no respecter of race, gender, gender orientation, religion, cultural background, age, veteran status, etc.  Successfully managing diversity requires teamwork and vulnerability. 

Diverse teams are created in ways that people may not expect.  Many of the staff must admit that they too were once caught up in illegal activities exacerbated by the use of and addiction to drugs and/or alcohol.  Many are former clients of the ARTS programs who successfully completed the program and graduated.  There’s no glory in entering the program as a client, but there’s plenty of respect, dignity and praise for overcoming the demons of past behavior and graduating from the program.  This diverse population of program graduates often times are filtered back into the program as counselors and staff members assisting new clients.  For these people graduation is only the beginning.  The real success is when they begin to help others through the recovery process. 

Being a member of one of these diverse teams does not require a marred past, but it does require the ability to respect the accomplishment of someone who has worked hard to create a better life for themselves and others.  Many of the staff have never committed a crime or been addicted to drugs.  Their path to ARTS was an intentional career choice.  Their knowledge may have come from program specific training  or college work.  Still, in order to work with clients they must be able to work with and respect the coworker who may have been a previous client. 

It requires an organized, intentional and determined effort to promote diversity in a program such as ARTS, and to be successful at the same time.  There is an emphasis on each person identifying their own personal biases and learning how such biases can hinder their own, and their client’s success in the programs.  Organized diversity training is provided as well as unavoidable, on-the-job diversity immersion/training.   Stereotypes and myths are explored and diffused every day. 

Implementation:  Attached you will find a PowerPoint presentation that describes how diversity is created, taught, and successfully managed within the Addiction Research Treatment Services programs of the UCD School of Medicine – Department of Psychiatry.  In particular you’ll see how “The Haven,” a unit of ARTS, is successfully growing and changing the lives of women and children who have been affected by substance abuse and criminal behavior.  The impact and result of The Haven’s success has attracted and continues to attract the attention of donors and philanthropists interested in furthering their success.  The Haven (http://www.havenfriends.org/)  is well ahead of schedule (in a tough economy) with their fund raising agenda to build a facility that will allow them to increase the number of women and children they are able to serve.  (see January 2009 Progress Report-attached). 

In addition to specific funding for The Haven, the overall funding for ARTS is received from donations and fund raising, approved provider services, agency contracts, fee for service contracts, client fees/insurance, and other substance abuse treatment contracts.  The funding makes it possible for ARTS to serve more than 1,500 clients each day from all walks of life. 

Impact:  The success of ARTS programs has helped restore dignity and respect for persons whose lives were previously ravaged by drugs, alcohol and criminal behavior. 

Through ARTS programs clients have been able to successfully reunite with their families.  They’ve transitioned back into the workforce and become productive citizens.  Many have stayed with the program after graduation to give back to others what they have received.  All of this is done regardless of the diversity that scares most people.  In fact, the purposeful focus of utilizing people of different backgrounds, cultures, etc., contributes to the ability to succeed in serving diverse clients from communities around the state.

The overwhelming testament to the success of the ARTS programs to serve all people is to come to their graduation ceremonies held twice each year (photo attached).  Graduates tell their personal stories of how the ARTS programs changed their attitudes and lives.  Praise is given by client/graduates to counselors, initially despised for their unyielding determination to get them through the program.  Tears stream down the faces of men, women and children as they see their loved ones graduate and soon return home after years of separation.  What you’ll also notice is that the clients and staff reign from all races, cultural backgrounds, nationalities, age groups, genders, etc.  Through this you’ll see that ARTS is reaching beyond UCD and into the community of Metro Denver and beyond. 

This is the reason I am nominating Addiction Research Treatment Services / The Haven to receive the 2009 President’s Diversity Award.

Richard Benson

Sr. Human Resources Consultant

University of Colorado Denver