Event Title

Breathing While Black and Brown: Using Racial Literacy to Teach Youth to Negotiate In-the-Moment Racial and Gender Rejection

Presenter Information

Howard Stevenson Jr., Ph.D.

Start Date

11-4-2015 1:30 PM

End Date

11-4-2015 3:00 PM

Description

The disproportionate expulsion of African American and Latino youth from schools and arrests for minor infractions is a traumatizing health crisis. Despite civil rights progress in societal systems, these advances rely upon legal remedies. Disproportionate treatment toward African American and Latino youth involves face-to-face dehumanization of Black youth behavior, conflicts that are emotional, not remedied by legal strategies. Many of these youth are exposed to neighborhood stressors that promote mental health challenges that interfere with school and family functioning. Daily racial micro- and macro-aggressions add trauma to many youths’ life experiences. Focusing on cultural strengths of Black and Latino youth is the thrust of the workshop and training. Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth (PLAAY), teaches youth, parents, and authority figures to manage stress during intense racial and non-racial face-to-face conflicts toward safe outcomes in classrooms and neighborhoods. PLAAY uses the physical activity of basketball and group therapy to build stronger relationships with Black youth. The presenter will use the clinical and empirical literature as well as practice knowledge in this area to inform guidelines for best practice.

Educational Objectives: Based on the presentation, the participant will be able to:

  • Describe research on the trauma of racial/gender discrimination and how dehumanization of Black and Latino youth and family leads to disproportionate exclusion
  • Discuss how authority figures can engage Black and Latino youth and families in conflicts (through affection, protection, and correction) by embracing their coping styles as strengths not threats
  • Describe a culturally relevant intervention that uses physical activity to help youth resolve personal traumas that interfere with academic and social well-being and engage in racially healthy and literate behaviors (feeling confident to speak up assertively in classrooms, with partners, and in social spaces)
  • Discuss racial literacy coping skills to personal and professional racial encounters (based on a model of racial socialization, literacy, and stress management)

About the Speaker: Dr. Howard Stevenson is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, and former Chair of the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994 to 2002, he was faculty master of the W. E. B. DuBois College House at Penn. In 1993, Dr. Stevenson received the W. T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholar Award, a national research award given to only five researchers per year which funds five years of research. In 1994, Dr. Stevenson was a Presidential Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, where 35 other community activists and researchers from 30 countries presented their community health intervention projects. In 1995, Dr. Stevenson served on a 12-member academic panel to consult on the development of a National Strategic Action Plan for African-American Males, sponsored by the National Drug Control Policy Office in the Office of the President. Dr. Stevenson has served for 29 years as a clinical and consulting psychologist working in impoverished rural and urban neighborhoods across the country.

Target Audience: Doctoral Level Psychologists and Other Mental Health Professionals

Level of Instruction: Intermediate

Location: Ginsburg Amphitheater

CE hours/credits: 1.5

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COinS
 
Apr 11th, 1:30 PM Apr 11th, 3:00 PM

Breathing While Black and Brown: Using Racial Literacy to Teach Youth to Negotiate In-the-Moment Racial and Gender Rejection

The disproportionate expulsion of African American and Latino youth from schools and arrests for minor infractions is a traumatizing health crisis. Despite civil rights progress in societal systems, these advances rely upon legal remedies. Disproportionate treatment toward African American and Latino youth involves face-to-face dehumanization of Black youth behavior, conflicts that are emotional, not remedied by legal strategies. Many of these youth are exposed to neighborhood stressors that promote mental health challenges that interfere with school and family functioning. Daily racial micro- and macro-aggressions add trauma to many youths’ life experiences. Focusing on cultural strengths of Black and Latino youth is the thrust of the workshop and training. Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth (PLAAY), teaches youth, parents, and authority figures to manage stress during intense racial and non-racial face-to-face conflicts toward safe outcomes in classrooms and neighborhoods. PLAAY uses the physical activity of basketball and group therapy to build stronger relationships with Black youth. The presenter will use the clinical and empirical literature as well as practice knowledge in this area to inform guidelines for best practice.

Educational Objectives: Based on the presentation, the participant will be able to:

  • Describe research on the trauma of racial/gender discrimination and how dehumanization of Black and Latino youth and family leads to disproportionate exclusion
  • Discuss how authority figures can engage Black and Latino youth and families in conflicts (through affection, protection, and correction) by embracing their coping styles as strengths not threats
  • Describe a culturally relevant intervention that uses physical activity to help youth resolve personal traumas that interfere with academic and social well-being and engage in racially healthy and literate behaviors (feeling confident to speak up assertively in classrooms, with partners, and in social spaces)
  • Discuss racial literacy coping skills to personal and professional racial encounters (based on a model of racial socialization, literacy, and stress management)

About the Speaker: Dr. Howard Stevenson is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Professor of Africana Studies, and former Chair of the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994 to 2002, he was faculty master of the W. E. B. DuBois College House at Penn. In 1993, Dr. Stevenson received the W. T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholar Award, a national research award given to only five researchers per year which funds five years of research. In 1994, Dr. Stevenson was a Presidential Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, where 35 other community activists and researchers from 30 countries presented their community health intervention projects. In 1995, Dr. Stevenson served on a 12-member academic panel to consult on the development of a National Strategic Action Plan for African-American Males, sponsored by the National Drug Control Policy Office in the Office of the President. Dr. Stevenson has served for 29 years as a clinical and consulting psychologist working in impoverished rural and urban neighborhoods across the country.

Target Audience: Doctoral Level Psychologists and Other Mental Health Professionals

Level of Instruction: Intermediate

Location: Ginsburg Amphitheater

CE hours/credits: 1.5