Southeastern Michigan Chapter Diversity Initiative
The American Red Cross Southeastern Michigan Chapter recognizes that diversity is critical to our success; it allows us to connect to our communities, to better engage them, serve them and more effectively fulfill our mission of saving lives.
Our vision is to cultivate a culturally competent and informed American Red Cross team in which our volunteers, employees and donors increasingly reflect the clients and communities we serve.
Our Chapter continues to be a pioneer of diversity goals by empowering our staff and volunteers with the tools necessary to effectively communicate our all inclusive philosophy to our multicultural community. As a result of the vibrant support of chapter management along with the leadership of the Diversity Specialist, Sharif AliDinar, the chapter has successfully spearheaded the "60 Minutes to Greater Awareness" diversity events with good attendance and active participation from staff and volunteers. These events provide the participants with easily applicable techniques to overcome common barriers such as language, cultural customs and common misconceptions.
During the first half of 2008, the diversity team hosted events that addressed such topics as gender in the workplace, transcending racial divisions, celebrating Latino culture and overcoming language barriers. Our diversity initiatives have afforded our chapter the opportunity to collaborate with various organizations including Wayne State University, Accent Reduction Institute, La Sed, Metro Detroit Youth and others.