Equity-grounded Counseling

Serving Black Students

20 Jan 2021

A New Webinar Series Developed by MiraCosta College

Counselors play a pivotal role in the success of students, particularly Black students where advocacy, support, and mentorship plays a critical role in identifying education and career paths and navigating institutions not always designed for their success. But there is often a gap between understanding the unique needs of Black students and how counselors, counseling staff, and administrators can take action to better serve this population.

MiraCosta College, working in partnership with Career Ladders Project and in collaboration with counseling faculty and administrators from Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, and the Umoja Community Education Foundation, is producing a series of four webinars, Equity-grounded Counseling: Serving Black Students, that launches on January 29. This four-part webinar series is specifically designed for those working in counseling offices across the state to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of Black students in counseling environments and discuss ways that they can individually and systemically enact change in everyday counseling practices and overall organization.

Each webinar is designed to address a critical topic in counseling Black students and provide attendees with tangible strategies that can be put into practice today. Webinars meet on Fridays from 8:30–10:00 a.m. Register now.

Here’s the webinar schedule:

Empathy as a tool for equity, January 29

This webinar will define empathy and explain why it is foundational to grounding counseling practices in equity and effectively serving Black students at our campuses

Deconstructing the process of career and educational planning, February 5

This webinar will explore the historic roots of traditional career and educational planning and the impact on Black communities. We’ll also discuss strategies to redefine how we effectively serve Black students in achieving career and educational goals.

Addressing basic needs in educational counseling environments, February 19

This webinar will focus on understanding the basic needs of Black students and strategies towards addressing identified needs in an educational counseling environment, grounded in trauma-informed care.

Maintaining an equity focus in the face of oppressive structures, February 26

This webinar will address the impact of traditional approaches to career and educational counseling that can ultimately harm Black students and discuss equity framed approaches and strategies to enact change and sustain the work.

 


The Equity-grounded Counseling webinar series has been produced by MiraCosta College in partnership with CLP and collaboration from counseling faculty and administrators from Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, and the Umoja Community Education Foundation. CLP’s work was funded in part by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.