Equity and Inclusion Training

NADCP's Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards state that those who have historically experienced sustained discrimination or reduced social opportunities because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, physical or mental disability, religion, or socioeconomic status must receive the same opportunities in treatment courts as others. This session will explore how to determine whether, on average, all participants, regardless of race, ethnicity or gender, have an equal opportunity to participate in and succeed in treatment court.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the national review of work on addressing disparities in treatment courts
• Discuss research findings on ways to assist treatment courts with creating equivalent experiences for all participants
• Identify performance indicators to use in their programs

The current sociocultural and political climates in the United States elucidate the importance of understanding our humanity while fostering deeper cross-cultural relationships.   As the nation is currently facing two pandemics, one health related and the other racial, our ability to engage in thoughtful and meaningful discourse on cultural issues remains ever present.  This presentation addresses the impact of racial capitalism, racial colorblindness, implicit bias, and colorism on our inability to create structural changes.  It is hoped that attendees gain insight into the importance of understanding one’s own cultural background and worldviews as a way to enhance our multicultural relationships, both personally and professionally.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Learn why cultural humility is essential in changing the nature by which we understand ourselves and others.
• Learn how to identify at least two ways in which professionals can address their own implicit biases.
• Examine racial colorblindness and its impact in developing respectful multicultural relationships.

Black and Hispanic or Latinx individuals experience substantial disparities in treatment courts, including significantly lower access to and success rates in the programs. Best practice standards published by NADCP and a unanimous resolution of the NADCP Board of Directors require treatment courts to monitor their programs at least annually for evidence of racial, ethnic or gender disparities, take reasonable corrective measures to eliminate disparities that are detected, and evaluate the success of the remedial actions. This workshop will review evidence on racial, ethnic and gender disparities in treatment courts, legal and ethical obligations imposed on programs to rectify those disparities, and practical ways to satisfy these obligations.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe research findings on racial, ethnic and gender disparities in treatment courts.

• Learn best practice standards governing elimination of disparities in treatment courts

• Learn promising practices to identify and reduce disparities in treatment courts.

Teams will have the opportunity to review the information presented in the plenary sessions to begin developing an action plan to address access to and retention in the treatment court program.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify ways to adjust their program to improve access and retention

This session will provide strategies for using social marketing and recruitment techniques to reach underrepresented populations in your community.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Examine their target audience and market
• Build their message and social marketing plan
• Create a recruitment campaign to include pre-admission information sharing and orientation messaging, that will better meet the needs of your underserved groups.

Throughout the training, teams will participate in breakouts designed to develop an action plan to include modifications to be incorporated into their policy and procedure manuals.  The Wrap-Up module will provide an opportunity for each team to share two things they will implement within three and six months following the training.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Develop an action plan to implement program changes
• Identify task to be completed within the next six months
• Assign tasks to responsible team members for completion within six months