As a child and youth professional, you will work with children and families from culturally diverse backgrounds throughout your career. Children’s unique identities should be represented throughout your program, and culturally responsive, anti-bias, anti-racist practices should be integrated in all that you do. A new Focused Topics course, Creating Culturally Responsive Programs, was developed to support the growing diversity found in child and youth programs. It encourages child and youth professionals to identify, explore, and celebrate the diverse identities of children, families, and colleagues.

The first six lessons of this course are aimed at all child and youth professionals, while the final two lessons address the coach’s and program manager’s roles (respectively) in centering anti-bias, anti-racist, and culturally responsive teaching in programs. This course defines culturally responsive teaching and equity, provides examples of how these concepts appear in child and youth programs, and supports staff and program leaders in creating equitable child care programs where everyone feels safe, valued, represented, and heard.