This framework for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) outlines the program’s commitment to the development and maintenance of a multiculturally enriched, just, and inclusive learning environment. The framework also signals our commitment to enhancing multicultural competencies in our faculty and students in personal and professional spaces including clinical practice.
This ever-evolving document will be central to the transformative change we all seek as a counselor education program. We are committed to working collaboratively with all of The Family Institute at Northwestern University counseling department stakeholders to advance this framework and related initiatives to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive program, discipline, and society.
Mission
In the counseling program, dignity, respect, inclusion, veracity, and equity are the core of who we are. We are unwaveringly committed to those values in all components of this program. Our central mission is rooted in these values. We believe having an inclusive perspective aids in the bettering of an ever-changing diverse community and world.
Vision
Advance DEI via the adoption of (1) the Shared Equity Leadership model, (2) the Northwestern University Inclusive Teaching Practices, and (3) the American Counseling Association Multicultural Counseling Competencies as we seek to honor the diverse identities of our counseling students and the community.
Our program has adopted the American Counseling Association (ACA) Multicultural Counseling Competencies detailed below, as we strive to:
- Align our DEI efforts with those of the ACA, which seeks to have its members
- Recognize the existence of differences in our society and adhere to the work of a cross-cultural approach in their desire to maintain the well-being, dignity, potential, and uniqueness of each individual (Multicultural Counseling Association, 2021).
Learn more about The Family Institute’s DEI Efforts
Learn more about the ACA Multicultural Counseling Competencies
