SNELLVILLE, Ga.–The African-American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC) is reporting a pilot Cross-Cultural Exchange Program (CCEP) has been launched successfully and “conversations and earnest dialogue are already taking place for each of the participants.”
According to the AACUC, the CCEP is a pilot initiative that offers participants an opportunity to “step back from their rapid pace and engage with fellow credit union professionals from distinct backgrounds. It is intended for these professionals to connect and share with a peer who is on a similar journey—someone outside of their own race/cultural background.”
Participants, the AACUC said, are setting aside time to have informal meetings to “build and enrich a relationship by learning from each other, exchanging ideas, experiences, finding commonality and common ground among participant’s values, virtues, and visions. Mostly, the expectation is to create a pathway toward inclusive excellence while sharing knowledge and expanding networks.”
‘Rich & Engaging’
The conversations thus far have been both rich and engaging, and all topics dealing with race and culture are on the table, the AACUC said.
“We believe getting people to talk about difficult subjects is an important part of moving forward as a community and a nation,” said Renée Sattiewhite, AACUC’s president and CEO. “We not only need to see things from a different perspective, but we also need to engage at a personal level. That means we need to encourage asking tough questions, accepting frank answers, and developing empathy for alternate points of view—on both or multiple sides of the debate. This was the basis for creating the Cross-Cultural Exchange Program.”
As part of the program, over 90-days participants will work to build rapport with paired partners and participate in small groups to find consensus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) topics, the AACUC said.
“There are many views informed by experiences and education along with media and political preferences. The goal is to break through all the noise and clutter to find common ground then move toward healing cultural wounds and misunderstandings,” according to the AACUC. “This all starts with simple conversations between two individuals—nothing more, nothing less.”
What’s Expected
In addition to being exposed to a variety of personal cultural experiences, the organization said the expectation is that at the end of the 90-day pilot an appreciation will be captured for different perspectives, highlighting multiple approaches to problem solving, and figuring out how to apply lessons learned in future DEI initiatives. “We expect to improve the program and to expand the numbers of participants after this pilot program concludes,” said Tony Hernandez, president/CEO of Defense Credit Union Council (DCUC) and founding Steering Committee member. “We are excited about the conversations that have already taken place and look forward to sharing these. Stay tuned for more as we progress further on this 90-day journey.”
Additional founding members of the Steering Committee for the CCEP are: John Bissell, president/CEO of Greylock FCU; Dan McCue, SVP, Alaska USA FCU; Jill Nowaki, president/CEO of Humandei, and Grace Sanchez, Latino Community engagement manager, AACUC.
Participating Organizations
Participating organizations include: AACUC, Alaska USA FCU, Chartway FCU, Chartway Federal Credit Union, Coca-Cola Credit Union, Community First Credit Union, Cornerstone Credit Union League, Corporate Central CU, Credit Union Association of New Mexico, CUES, CUNA, CUNA Mutual Group, DCUC, Dover Federal Credit Union, Greylock FCU, Humanidei, Inclusiv, Infuze Credit Union, Local Government FCU, Michigan State University FCU, Montana Credit Union League, NASCUS, Navy FCU, Northeast Family FCU, Ohio Credit Union League, Pearl Hawaii FCU, PenFed Credit Union, Plexcity, Point West Credit Union, RBFCU, SEFCU, Service at Coastal Credit Union, Service Credit Union, St. Louis Community Credit Union, TFCU, The Armed Forces Financial Network – AFFN, Travis Credit Union, True North FCU, USC Credit Union, VSECU, and Woodlawn FCU.