Family Service Providers: Recognizing and Responding to Inequities

This course addresses how family service providers can learn to identify and assess impediments to family well-being through a social justice lens and give learners ways of responding to institutional discrimination as it appears in organizational policy and in the management and practice of human services.

Family service providers connect families to services and programming that positively influence a family’s well-being. However, systemic discrimination, marginalization, and inequity create barriers to access and opportunities for diverse families. How can social service providers become front-line social justice advocates?

This course will confront how family service providers can learn to identify and assess impediments to family well-being through a social justice lens and give learners ways of responding to institutional discrimination as it appears in organizational policy and in the management and practice of human services.

Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of prejudice and the impact of discrimination on individuals and families, with regard to race, gender, disability, sexual identity, and ethnicity. 
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which racism and oppression operate at the personal, institutional, and structural levels.
3. Identify and consider ways of responding to institutional discrimination as it appears in organizational policy and in the management and practice of human services.

The 2022 Military Family Readiness Academy series focused on individuals’ understanding of social justice and equity, including their own understanding of privilege and oppression.

Allison DeMarco MSW, Ph.D.

Allison De Marco, MSW, Ph.D., is an advanced research scientist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and adjunct faculty at the School of Social Work at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on racial equity, poverty, neighborhood effects, work and family, and well-being for residents of rural communities. Currently, she is building a research agenda examining racial equity interventions both in educational and governmental settings and the role of state and county-level structural racism in economic well-being.

This course is approved for 1.5 CEs from the following organizations:

• Board Certified Patient Advocates: This program has been pre-approved by the Patient Advocate Certification Board (PACB) to provide continuing education credit to Board Certified Patient Advocates (BCPA). The program has been approved for a total of 1.5 CE contact hours, of which 0.0 are in the area of Ethics.
• Accredited Financial Counselors (AFC): This program has been approved for 1.5 CEUs from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE) for AFCs.
• Social Work, LPC, LMFT: This program has been approved for 1.5 CEs from the University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks School of Social Work.
• Certified Family Life Educators (CFLE): This program has been approved for 1.5 CEs from National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) for CFLEs.
• Certified Personal Finance Counselors (CPFC): This program has been approved for 1.5 CEs from FinCert for CPFCs.
• Case Manager: This program has been approved by the Commission for Case Manager Certification for board-certified case managers with 1.5 clock hours.

Participants interested in documenting their training activities may also receive a Certificate of Attendance.