SafeZone Training Series @
Orange Coast College

Year 1 / Spring 2021 / Multiple dates throughout Spring 2021

DESCRIPTION

In Spring 2021, the Student Equity Office at Orange Coast College (OCC) hosted two LGBTQIA+ SafeZone Ally Training sessions: one for faculty & staff and one for students. Both sessions were planned and facilitated by myself and Diana Aguilar, Student Equity Professional Expert for LGBTQIA+ Projects. We trained a total of 5 students and 16 faculty & staff at Orange Coast College.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Student will be able to utilize student development theories to create curriculum for an LGBTQIA+ SafeZone Ally Training.

2. Student will be able to create and co-facilitate an LGBQTIA+ SafeZone Ally Training geared towards a Faculty & Staff audience.

3. Student will be able to create and co-facilitate an LGBQTIA+ SafeZone Ally Training geared towards a Student audience.

LEARNING DOMAINS

• Leadership

• Social Justice & Advocacy

• Education

• Assessment & Evaluation

REFLECTION

I am currently the Student Equity Specialist at Orange Coast College (OCC), so I am able to have my hands in many different Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) projects happening via the Student Equity Office. One example is our LGBTQIA+ Programming for students. We have Diana Aguilar, the Student Equity Professional Expert for LGBTQIA+ Projects, leading this charge, but as I support in different ways, including in planning and executing different programming in collaboration with Diana. In February 2020 (right before the pandemic), Diana and I were both certified to be SafeZone trainers by the Out Alliance's Train-the-Train program. Then, as the pandemic hit, we put a hold on any plans for SafeZone trainings to direct our attention to more dire needs. In Spring 2021, we decided that we had the capacity to finally plan official SafeZone trainings at OCC for the first-time ever. We decided to host one Staff & Faculty training and one Student training in Spring 2021. The Staff & Faculty training would require a greater time commitment of 4 hours (split into two 2-hour sessions), while the Student training would require 3 hours.

We were excited to expand the LGBTQIA+ programming through these SafeZone trainings, but being the first-ever means that there is little structure set up to begin with. During the Train-the-Trainer program, the Out Alliance had provided us with various templates to use in creating our training, but we knew that we were going to have to make some tweaks based on the context of our campus and the audience. For example, for our staff & faculty training, we allocated additional time for a facilitated discussion on how to make small and big changes on our campus to create more inclusive environments for LGBTQIA+ students and colleagues. For students, we tweaked this question to ask students how they will be allies for their LGBTQIA+ loved ones and community members in their life both inside and outside of school. Diana and I were very intentional about making sure that the content and discussions would fit the audience members we were addressing.

I also wanted to use student development theory in the faculty & staff training to make sure that educators were aware of the importance of student identity and development for LGBTQIA+ students. The Out Alliance's Train-the-Trainer did go over the Cass (1979) model of identity formation, which is a foundational theory to understanding LGBTQ identity formation. Fortunately, I was taking EDAD 523: Student Learning and Development at this time, so I also learned about Dillon et al. (2011) and the Unifying Model of Sexual Identity Development. This more updated model by Dillon et al. helped me see the limitations of Cass's theory, so when I brought up to Diana that maybe we want to consider updated the Out Alliance's template to include a reference to the 2011 model by Dillon et al., Diana was more than receptive. I believe this made our training even more up-to-date and rooted in theory in a way that will help us better serve LGBTQIA+ students.

A personal process I had to go through was processing the fact that I was a cisgender, straight staff member co-facilitating this training. Due to my position in the Student Equity Office, I was tasked with co-facilitating this training, but I knew that there nuances of power and privilege that existed as I took on this role of leading this initiative with Diana. It almost made me feel guilty that I was taking this role, while simultaneously dismayed that our campus wasn't at a point where we had a team of LGBTQIA+ staff members who could lead this charge. To overcome these personal feelings, I asked Dianna for feedback regularly on the content to make sure that my own biases and blind spots were checked. When Diana noted problematic language from me, I thanked her for the feedback and noted that it would be fixed in future trainings. For example, while delivering the student training, I used the term "mother" when referring to the person who gave birth to the student. Diana noted that the term "person who gave birth" to you would be more inclusive, which I acknowledged and committed to making that conscious change in future sessions. II also noted to Diana that my hope is that by working together with Diana to bolster LGBTQIA+ programming, we can institutionalize these programs and services at OCC to the point where we need to hire more permanent staff members whose primary role would be to serve LGBTQIA+ students.

Overall, the trainings were a great success. We trained a total of 5 students and 16 faculty & staff at Orange Coast College. We thought this was a great turnout for our first-ever trainings during the middle of a pandemic! We can only expect that turnout and engagement would increase if we were to transition to in-person trainings next year. This year, we collaborated with the OCC Instructional Wing Office to spread the word about this training to faculty. This really helped get faculty to sign up for the training. Next year, I hope to reach out to Student Services staff representative bodies to spread the word to Student Services staff. In the post-survey, many students gave comments that they learned a lot and hoped to see more programming in the future for LGBTQIA+ students. Many staff & faculty remarked in the post-survey the importance of continuing these trainings to create structures for equity. I hope to continue SafeZone trainings in the semesters to come to create structures for equity at OCC.

REFERENCES

Cass, V. C. (1979). Homosexual identity formation: A theoretical model. Journal of Homosexuality, 4, 219–235.

Dillon, F. R., Worthington, R. L., & Moradi, B. (2011). Sexual identity as a universal process. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 649–670). New York: Springer.

Patton, L.D., Evans, N., Forney, D., & Guido, F., Quaye, S. (2016). Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.