So many of us are working hard to build our intercultural capacity. Curious about how you are doing with that? The Bending the Arc task force is working to bring the highly-touted Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to any UUCM member interested in taking this confidential assessment survey.
The IDI:
- assesses one’s intercultural competence – the capability to shift cultural perspective and appropriately adapt behavior to cultural difference and commonalities
- helps individuals grow their intercultural competency through targeted learning
- provides individual respondents a personalized Intercultural Development Plan (IDP) which outlines a clear roadmap to increasing intercultural competence through developmentally appropriate activities
The IDI has been used with much success by other UU congregations as a foundational step toward building a multicultural congregation. That’s important given that multiculturalism is embedded in our values.
For example, the proposed changes to the UUA bylaws describe our shared value of justice as follows: “We work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all thrive. We covenant to dismantle racism in all forms of systemic oppression.”
Mistakes and Miracles, Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism by Nancy Palmer Jones and Karen Lin tell a story that made me smile. Dan, a member of the UU church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, took the IDI and discovered he was what he called in the “self-congratulatory phase.” His reaction was “like a shot in the heart, like ‘Whoa!’…I didn’t want to stay there. Even in the process of sitting with Tamara [the Administrator of the IDI] and going through it, things started to open up.”
The IDI is an excellent starting point for multicultural work because the focus is on the individual. UUCM members decide whether they wish to take the assessment, as no one is forced to do so. The survey is administered by a Qualified Administrator (QA). Results of the assessment are confidential and are only shared with the Administrator. The Administrator will support further actions that the member can take to improve their intercultural competence.
The total cost to receive training to become the QA is $1,950. A member of UUCM has expressed interest in completing the training to become the QA and has offered to pay a portion of the training cost. Funding for the remaining portion of the QA training cost will be determined at a later date after the congregation’s interest in this program has been assessed.
If approved, the only cost to folks taking the survey will be a $23 fee to IDI to process the results (scholarships may be available to offset the processing fee).
If you are interested in participating in the IDI survey or have further questions please do not hesitate to contact BTA members Keith Johnson, Gail Johnson Vaughn, Lindsay Dunckel, Jim Perkins or Tracy Pepper. Additional information about the IDI is available at https://www.idiinventory.com/.