Make a World of Difference: 50 Asset-Building Activities to Help Teens Explore Diversity »

Dawn C. Oparah is the vice president and co-owner of Amadi Leadership Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that offers training and consultation in management, personal leadership development, school improvement strategies, human relation skill development, and community development. She is a founding board member of the Association of Village PRIDE (People Respecting Identity Development in Everyone), Inc., and a board member for the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse. She lives in Fayetteville, Georgia.

A wide range of cultural competence is addressed in this creative resource for raising diversity awareness in teenagers. With a comprehensive approach that incorporates a variety of learning styles and skill levels, the three sections include personal-awareness activities for those with little exposure to diversity issues, a section for building cultural awareness around a particular topic, and practice activities for trying out new relationship-building methods. Each activity invites participants to examine their attitudes and behaviors about diversity and make the lesson tangible with group discussion. More than 20 reproducible activity sheets and scripts provide group leaders with hands-on tools and ready-to-use lesson plans, and a section on facilitation techniques helps program leaders guide sensitive discussions.

Jean Boreen, Ph.D. - Children's Literature

Using the December 2004 tsunami that hit Asia and Africa as its impetus, this book delves into the issue of diversity and why it is imperative that young people understand what it means to be responsible citizens of the world. To lead students toward this understanding, the author cites the idea of "Cultural Competence," one of the Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets (note that the Search Institute is the publisher of this text and has a trademark on the definition of these assets). Citing the eight categories defined as developmental assets—"Empowerment," "Support," "Boundaries and Expectations," "Constructive Use of Time," "Commitment to Learning," "Positive Values," "Social Competencies," "Positive Identity"—the author then provides fifty activities that allow students to explore cultural diversity with their classmates. The activities vary, from role-playing to collaborative work, from eating to explore cultures to working on shorter research projects. Teachers will find this text a useful resource in supporting cultural awareness. 2006, The Search Institute, Ages Adult.