Our partner, MindEdge, offers this 12-hour certificate, made of 3 courses. These courses have been pre-approved for CAWA CEs and HRCIs. 

Developed in accordance with the International Organization for Standardization's guidance on diversity and inclusion for organizations (ISO 30415:2021), the Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion in HR Management provides a foundation for creating a workplace where all employees are respected and appreciated as valuable members of the organization, are able to participate in work-related opportunities, can follow career paths that use their skills and knowledge to the fullest, and receive fair compensation. The courses explain how diverse and inclusive workplaces are more productive, innovative, creative, and profitable, and that fostering an inclusive culture produces higher employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention rates. The certificate explores the responsibilities of leaders, the workforce, and other stakeholders in recognizing diversity, working and communicating inclusively, reducing unconscious biases, acting accountably, and assessing diversity and inclusion initiatives using qualitative and quantitative methods.

*** For full details and to register, see The Association's MindEdge Catalog here. MindEdge courses are available to all of your staff and volunteers, so share this link to all!

The three courses in this certificate:

Fostering an Inclusive Culture 
To achieve diversity and inclusion, organizations need to create an inclusive culture where all employees are respected and appreciated, have equal access to workplace opportunities, and are fairly compensated. In this course, you will learn about how to create, encourage, and develop an inclusive culture. You will explore the 7 Pillars of Inclusion, traits of an inclusive leader, strategies to assess employee buy-in, professional development opportunities, and workplace accessibility. You will examine how to uproot workplace toxicity and address and prevent harassment and discrimination. The course illustrates the many benefits of an inclusive culture, including higher levels of employee engagement, productivity, employee satisfaction, and retention rates.

Assessing Diversity and Inclusion 
Organizations are accountable for their diversity and inclusion goals. In this course, you will learn about HR metrics, predictive analytics, diversity training, diversity scorecards, and other tools that organizations use to identify biases, track the progress of initiatives, and gauge the effectiveness of policies. This course will explain how to use both soft and hard metrics to formulate, update, and implement diversity and inclusion goals. You will also learn about the importance of employee buy-in, diversity leaders, and C-suite support in achieving a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Hiring and Retaining Diverse Talent
Increasing workplace diversity necessitates strategies that foster more inclusive and equitable workplace practices. In this course, you will learn how leaders who want tangible, measurable results from diversity and inclusion initiatives must take an active role in supporting and implementing these strategies. You will explore how to use talent management systems and performance metrics to create a diverse workplace. This course illustrates that providing equal opportunities for continued engagement, including flexible work arrangements, mentorship programs, and employee benefits, is paramount for an organization's diversity and inclusion efforts to succeed.

Caring for animals and helping the people who support them can feel daunting. Add in a staffing shortage and you’re officially overwhelmed. How do you prioritize when you don't have enough help or time? When should you take a break or push forward? How do you say 'no' to the next task so you can say 'yes' to your well-being?

Learn how panelists across different animal welfare sectors manage wellness and boundaries when staff and morale are constantly shifting. This roundtable is ideal for staff interested in adding coping strategies to their wellness toolkit. 

The Roundtable Panel:

• Allison Cardona, California State Director, Koret Shelter Medicine Program
• Jessica Umunnabuike, Senior Talent & Diversity Specialist, San Diego Humane Society
• Kristen Williams Community Events & Outreach Manager, Forsyth Humane Society

Moderated by:

• Jasmin Robinson, Director of DEI Initiatives, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement

This roundtable has been approved for 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit.

Is your DEI work burning you out?  Do you feel like your organization has hit a DEI wall? 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is crucial for our organizations to thrive and achieve their missions. Although we have seen a lot of positive momentum in animal welfare around DEI, many leaders feel exhausted by what seem like insurmountable odds after repeated attempts to make progress are met with resistance, inaction, and even hostility. How can you move your efforts forward in these moments without causing damage to yourself and others?

Explore strategies for building an endurance mindset to DEI and try out tools to develop the stamina to continue progressing—even when you feel like you’ve hit the wall.

 Objectives:

• Identify common causes for hitting the DEI Wall
• Explore tools to avoid burnout and build individual physical, mental, and emotional stamina
• Determine organizational strategies and practices to maintain steady and sustainable progress toward DEI goals in the face of fatigue or blowback

Presenter: Jasmin M. Robinson, Director of DEI Initiatives, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement

This webinar has been pre-approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Join us for a discussion with industry leaders about building a fair and just workforce. Learn how they’re recruiting and onboarding talent through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Panelists will share highlights and challenges they experienced along the way, while attendees will walk away with next steps for updating their recruitment and onboarding initiatives. 

Panelists will share ways they have:

• Widened their talent pool to make opportunities accessible to a broader range of candidates
• Minimized unconscious bias in the interviewing process, ensuring all applicants are evaluated based on consistent criteria

This session will benefit hiring teams and hiring managers who are preparing to recruit new talent at their shelters and organizations.

 The Roundtable Panel:

• Meshia Burrell, Vice President of People and Culture, The Anti-Cruelty Society 
• Aubrey Daniels, HR Manager, Pasado's Safe Haven 
• Mark Neff, Executive Director, Forsyth Humane Society   
  

Moderated by:

• Jasmin Robinson, Director of DEI Initiatives, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement

This roundtable has been approved for 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit.

Toward a Culture of Belonging and Inclusion in Animal Welfare

Would your leadership like to start or expand your DEI initiatives? Having trouble getting buy in from your staff, board, or community? Learn how Marin Humane partnered with a consultant to align their DEI programming with their strategic plan and priorities. Marin Humane found by connecting the dots, they began thinking more creatively about addressing critical needs in their community.

The presenters will share examples of projects and programming implemented during a nine-month capacity-building engagement. You will walk away with a menu of projects and programs plus sample project charters, including a job description review with revision and plans for board diversification. 

Session Objectives:

• Understand the key factors that drive organizational effectiveness through DEI goals and objectives
• Develop DEI plans that integrate with organizational strategies and priorities
• Deploy viable short, mid, and long-term DEI projects and programming to address improvements to talent acquisition, engagement, and retention; organizational morale; mission-driven programming; and board development

This webinar has been pre-approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Toward a Culture of Belonging and Inclusion in Animal Welfare

How can we ensure inclusion, safety, and belonging for transgender* people in our organizations? 

Webinar attendees will unpack the importance of DEI work concerning transgender, non-binary, and gender-fluid people in the animal sheltering and well-being movement, and how this work is inherently anti-racist and anti-oppressive. This webinar will cover a brief history of gender, the intersectional, Black Feminist roots of queer theory, and unpack some of the most asked questions about transgender and non-binary identities. 

Attendees will walk away with tangible ideas that your organization can implement to create more trans-inclusivity, equity, and belonging, and will understand how these actions can contribute to your overall DEI efforts. 

Presenter: Rory Adams, Senior Manager of Adoption Initiatives. PetSmart Charities

This webinar has been pre-approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Leaders from the DEI Committee of The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement will share results from the first animal welfare sector survey conducted regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion in our profession. With more than 2,600 respondents, the survey provides insights on where the animal welfare industry is currently, along with recommendations to further the eradication of systemic discrimination and racism in animal welfare. The panel will focus on what’s next in this important work and identify paths for animal welfare professionals to strengthen their DEI journey.  

Sponsored By Boehringer Ingelheim. This session was presented at Looking Forward: The Future of Animal Welfare virtual conference in December, 2021. 

Panelists:

• Johnny Jenkins, DEI Advisory Committee Co-Lead & The JyOba! Project
• Shannon Martin Roebuck, DEI Survey Committee Chair
• Maria Morukian, MSM Global Consulting
• Zimife Umeh, MSM Global Consulting

This session, both live and the recording, has been approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit 
• 1 CFRE CE
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Whether we realize it or not, the polarization and uncertainty happening in society impacts every aspect of our lives, including the workplace. When we feel that a core part of our values or our identity is threatened, our instinct is often to contract, to seek what feels comfortable, predictable, and safe. Yet it is precisely in these times when we need to expand, to venture beyond the assumed safety of our comfort zones and echo chambers. We will explore 3 practices for expansion and how to broaden and diversify our social networks to make better decisions for our organizations.

Presenters: Maria Morukian, MSM Global Consulting & Jasmin Robinson, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement

This webinar has been pre-approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Part of The DEI Dozen package.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "death by a thousand paper cuts?" It's not only blatant acts of bias that exclude or discriminate against people from minoritized populations. It's often the more subtle acts of exclusion, also known as microinequities or microaggressions, that are equally if not more harmful. These behaviors  on the surface may seem insignificant, for example: 

• frequently interrupting the same people during conversations
• consistently forgetting or mispronouncing a person's name
• using coded or stereotypical language
• overlooking someone's work but praising another's 

Regardless of the intentions of the message sender, the impact of such actions are often deeply felt by the receiver, especially if they have been on the receiving end of exclusionary treatment many times before. This session will help you recognize some common microaggressions, understand the impact of such actions, and develop techniques to respond effectively when they occur.

Presenter: Jasmin Robinson, Director of DEI Initiatives, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement

This webinar has been pre-approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Part of The DEI Dozen package.

What is the secret ingredient for high performing teams? 

Research over the last few decades clearly indicates that teams with high levels of "psychological safety" consistently and dramatically outperform those that do not. Psychological safety refers to freedom from fear of being ridiculed or punished for speaking up about one's ideas, opinions, questions or mistakes. When individuals feel fully included and are able to speak honestly and without fear of social risk, teams are more innovative, make fewer errors, are more capable of complex problem solving, and are willing to give discretionary effort for the good of the group. This session will explore the key elements of psychological safety in teams. You will be equipped with tips and techniques for fostering psychological safety in your organization.

Presenters:  Jasmin Robinson, Director of DEI Initiatives, The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement; Maria Morukian, Founder and President, MSM Global Consulting

This webinar has been pre-approved for:

• 1 Certified Animal Welfare Administrator continuing education credit
• 1 NACA CE
• 1 CE towards ACO CE requirements per Ch. 829 of the Texas Health and Safety Code by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS)

Part of The DEI Dozen package.