Bloomington diversity education and consulting company the Guarden, LLC, trains individuals and employees of companies, organizations and institutions about cultural sensitivity and communication. The company helps people develop intercultural competence through grace and reconciliation, according to its website.
Kristin Russell, social media manager and a consultant at the company, said the Guarden has signed 27 contracts so far with clients including IU, the Monroe County Government and the Mrs. Indiana pageant.
Russell said the workshop-style training is designed according to the client’s needs. The training includes discussing stereotypes and implicit biases after describing photo portraits and watching video clips.
Russell said the company focuses on meeting people’s stereotypes and implicit biases with grace, which gives people the chance to examine themselves and grow.
“We need to understand racial stereotypes, and we need to confront them,” they said. “It's more than just learning and changing policy. It's being nice to people and understanding, and it's trying to be in a position where everybody is as happy as they can be and safe and comfortable.”
The Guarden transforms its clients by helping them become more considerate when talking to others, Russell said.
“I can almost see it and feel it when people are beginning to realize that they're on a journey to something better,” they said. “Once they start talking about their experiences with others and how it's affected them, they start to talk different, and then you can hear them speaking differently to their colleagues.”
Elizabeth Sensenstein, human resource specialist at the Monroe County Government, said she went through five training sessions from December to February. She said she felt the sessions benefitted her connection with colleagues.
“I really felt like I got to know my colleagues better, and then that really created conversations outside of the training sessions that I was having with my coworkers that I might not have had before,” she said.
Sensenstein said she appreciated the safe space founder and CEO Nichelle Whitney creates for her clients to achieve higher cultural competence.
“I think that it gave us the ability to be able to say something that maybe we just weren't sure about,” Sensenstein said. “It's not about being right or wrong, but about learning from each other and from her about how to approach something in a different way.”
Whitney, who also chairs the Monroe County Women’s Commission, said in an email to the Indiana Daily Student that the Guarden adopts a facilitation style of learning so people walk away with practicable knowledge about cultural sensitivity that has a lasting impact on them.
“In order to move the needle on intercultural competence, we have to employ this idea that we’re okay with people learning, and we are committed to learning no matter how difficult it is,” she said. “We have to learn, and oftentimes we have to unlearn and then relearn.”
