UCAR’s flagship DEI training program is called UNEION: UCAR and NSF NCAR Equity and Inclusion.
UNEION 101 is the introductory course in the UNEION training series and focuses on developing a greater understanding of diversity and inclusion topics. The training examines four topics: (1) Our Place in Society, (2) Gender, (3) Race, (4) Putting It Into Practice. The training uses a flipped classroom approach in a cohort experience, with close relationships built across the organization, and includes deep, personal reflection as part of the learning experience – including ways in which our identities can affect our experiences in society and the workplace.
Evaluation results show that UNEION 1) increases participants’ awareness of inequities, 2) encourages participants to feel responsible for DEI, and 3) teaches participants how to intervene in inappropriate situations. For more on our evaluation, you can read our articles in Harvard Business Review and BAMS.
If you are a current employee and you are interested in attending UNEION 101, please add yourself to the waitlist on Workday - waitlisted individuals are given priority when enrolling for the next cohort. UNEION is offered in some format twice a year.
UNEION 102 will be launching in Spring 2025, and will be open to all alumni of the UNEION 101 program. UCAR will offer the following modules at multiple times of year and participants will be able to choose their own schedule. UNEION 102 will be considered complete when participants have taken all 5 modules.
- LGBTQ topics
- Neurodiversity
- Disability
- Body shape and size
- How to be an effective ally
Mission and Vision for UNEION
Mission: In UNEION, we use peer facilitation to explore how identities shape power and oppression. We unite with our colleagues in honoring individual experiences and our common humanity and in providing tools to pursue individual, interpersonal, and systemic change.
Vision: A just and inclusive organization where employees actively practice curiosity and compassion.
UNEION 101 Learning Outcomes
- After completing UNEION 101, participants will recognize their responsibility and capacity for helping to create a welcoming and inclusive workplace, through recognition and validation of the life experiences of their colleagues inside and outside of the workplace.
- After completing UNEION 101, participants will recognize and develop skills and tools for interrupting or building new systems and behaviors involving the following:
- Identity (in the context of gender identity, race, and intersections)
- Bias (internal and systemic) and Prejudice
- Privilege
- Microaggressions
- Intent vs. Impact
- Oppression
- Equity/Equality
- Racism
- Sexism
- Allyship/Accomplice
- Intervention strategies and tactics
- After completing UNEION 101, participants will reflect upon their own identity development and the impact of those identities on their experiences. They will learn how systems of oppression impact everyone in various ways and begin to understand ways to counteract these systems.
- After completing UNEION 101, participants will be able to recognize social situations where they can intervene to assist a person experiencing harm with learned upstander strategies that balance personal safety versus comfort and how to respond as an ally versus a savior.’
- After completing UNEION 101, participants will recognize intersectional systems of oppression, power, and privilege and how they impact identity development and expression.