In the wake of a racially based incident that created headlines, CoreCollaborative International (CCI) worked with a Ridgefield, New Jersey high school on diversity, equity, and inclusion training for its teaching faculty. The training represented a unique opportunity for CCI to collaborate with some of its most trusted and long-standing partners. 

The first of these partners is the UK-based media production organization Crossing Borders International (CBE). CCI has been partnering with CBE since 2015. The partnership was rooted in dialogue work that CCI and CBE had carried out together in Missouri around racial tensions on campuses in the wake of the 2014 killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson. In collaboration with Webster University, the University of Missouri, and Missouri State University, CCI and CBE screened the CBE film American Textures: The Journey of Six Young Americans Confronting Race with Dialogue. The team piloted the use of film clips as prompts for encouraging dialogue, guided by CCI-created curricular materials. A connected program was delivered by another CCI partner based at Missouri State University, Dr. Lyle Foster, an MSU sociology professor and curator of oral history. That program was entitled “Tough Talks,” and encouraged in-depth conversations on topics related to these racial tensions. 

So when, a few years later, the invitation came from Ridgefield Memorial High School, CCI knew that together with its partners, it had a winning formula for how to approach teachers. To round out its collaborative initiative for Ridgefield, CCI added a final key element, which is the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI) assessment. The training content for Ridgefield was built around the administration of the BEVI and was based on key BEVI concepts. Ridgefield participants took part in the BEVI through individual assessments. Analyzing individual data, CCI put together an anonymized group assessment report, which was shared with participants in order to help them see their own similarities and differences. Then, over a period of two days, participants watched American Textures as well as clips from other CBE films, and debriefed through dialogue and other activities. In the midst of these difficult conversations, the BEVI functioned as a grounding mechanism, giving trainers a sense of the faculty participants’ worldviews, and giving participants themselves a robust tool for understanding themselves and others. 

Though the initial training at Ridgefield reached a limited audience, it was hoped that it would serve as a pilot for other or broader groups in the future. CCI received a great deal of positive feedback from the participants, who appreciated the opportunity to work through these issues and who, in particular, valued the insight offered by the BEVI. Most of these public school teachers had enjoyed few opportunities for personality assessments, so they found in BEVI a useful framework for understanding how people come to see the world as they do. In their post-program feedback, participants encouraged the use of BEVI on a larger scale for their colleagues. From the point of view of the CCI team, it was rewarding to see how BEVI could be used together with the CBE films and the dialogue work. Those who know the BEVI know that it can be, and indeed is, used in many different contexts. In the Ridgefield initiative, CCI has demonstrated the value of the tool in taking on challenging issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
CoreCollaborative International’s deep bench of professional partnerships makes each of its initiatives, such as the training for Ridgefield Memorial High School, a success. To every client, CCI brings a wealth of effective partners and tools to address needs and create solutions. Contact CCI today to discover how CCI’s robust network can assist your organization in meeting its goals.