Am I being unwoke?

Unconscious bias is always there, even in the people drawing up these courses and in the course content itself.

I would be tempted to ask them about how these unconscious biasses have been eliminated from their courses, not to mention the conscious biasses, but I am one of natures contrarians and frankly these courses are a lot of cant and wokewash.

I have seen a printed 'leaflet' given to me by a friend on the subject of unconscious bias, Inclusivity etc. It was very informative, well-written and concise.

It made me realise something which I already knew anyway, that I, along with others, have this bias to some degree or other.

I don't think it's necessary to hold a Course. An online Paper on the matter is sufficient. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence could understand the one I read. It's a waste of resources.

I think if it were me I would attend but would question what I was being told, if I didn't agree with it, and ask why?

Surprising how many people deliver these courses without a proper understanding of what they are doing, and they resent being questioned.

Recently resigned for a charity because I believed donated money was being used for purposes the donor had not intended.
I do take the point though that requests for volunteers to attend' training' i.e. a computerised tick box system which did not adequately assess either prior knowledge or knowledge gained from the training and attendant practical change may be a waste of resource and put potential volunteers off.

🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I’m duolingoing French at the moment ! Everything is male or female ! Not an easy thing to get used to in these times !

I think, when done well, such courses are very useful, and can significantly improve the way services are offered, their quality, and their reach.

It’s also, quite possibly, a requirement of one of their grants or contracts, and, if so, will be funded work. Even if it’s not, it’s a part of putting users - all users - first, not separate from that, and is thus an appropriate use of resources.

I don't see why pronouns are put on emails anyway.
When you answer the person you won't be using she or he to them.

No you are not being unreasonable you are entitled to your opinion. The service user seems not to be the charities priority but image is I would decline from working with them and it would be their loss.

The training must be costing a fortune. I would have thought that an online talk carried out during induction and available to all would have covered it.

Is there a channel via which you can question the need for pronouns etc, or is it something that is just imposed with no discussion? Is there a sensible reason for asking people to use a particular mode to refer to someone in his or her absence, for instance?

If you can ask questions and get considered answers, I think it is very different from just being expected to blindly follow an ideology without question.

nandad
We are all volunteers in our charity shop ( including the manager) we had the same request
We politely gave them the 🖕
We think we’re pretty diverse as it goes.
We have a volunteer in a wheelchair
A Nigerian lady who brings in her 3 legged dog.
A lady with OCD.
We know for a fact that our management team can’t match that.

We can all show unconscious bias in our interactions with others.

Last week at a medical consultation I had to be quite insistent that I wished to know the results of tests and the implications and not just take the three medications that were handed to me. I’m pretty certain that being female and more especially old, led to consultant to assume I wouldn’t able to understand . Even then he explained in very simplistic terms that I might have used to a four year old.

I think it’s good to be made aware of what we do or think unconsciously, particularly if a volunteer is working with lots of different people. The thing about unconscious bias is that’s it’s unconscious. We don’t know we’re doing it until we’re made to think about it it.

I sort clothes in a Charity shop and even there you can see an element of bias in what volunteers select or reject😬

I would be concerned at this use of, presumably, precious funding. I suppose charities have to tick the box to say they've done this sort of thing but it's hard swallow under these circumstances. I might find another avenue for my volunteering efforts?

I think I’d want to know how much it’s all costing! And whether it’s the best use of presumably limited resources.

When I worked at our local library, all council employees in whatever capacity had to undertake 2 online training courses, in Equality/Diversity and Health and Safety.

Honestly, they were a joke. They took about 20 minutes max each, online, and consisted of a series of questions with tick-box answers - 3 or 4 for each. If you got one wrong, it came back with a cheery, ‘Not quite right, try again!’

But at the end of them, we were all ‘trained’.
The council was endlessly bewailing shortage of funds at the time - I did wonder how much they paid the outside ‘training’ agency. Probably just as well that I never found out.

I rather agree with you. What sort of charity is it?