Indigenous Perspective: Historical & Present Day White Saviorism & Its Impact on System Involved Youth Today

Nima Novak

Training Description

White saviorism has been shown in experiential survivor reports and research to cause very harmful consequences to those overpowered by white supremacy and colonization. In this 2-hour training, the presentation will include definitions, research on the impact of trauma from colonization, what to do as a bystander and how to prevent harm to others in an effort to improve outcomes for system involved youth who are disproportionately youth of color and all too often negatively affected by past and ongoing cultural erasure. Participants will be guided through a sequence of learning discussions to explore and understand the negative impact of white supremacy and white saviors and to gain increased self-awareness in order to reduce harm in the future through disruption and self-examination of their own behavior. Learning activities will include: self-reflection, storytelling of real life examples, large group exercises, and participant question time.

Learning Objectives

● Participants will be able to identify & explain white saviorism.

● Participants will be able to explain generational trauma and identify at least 2 negative impacts these can have on system involved youth.

● Participants will be able to explain the process of disrupting white saviorism.

Agenda

10:00-10:05am Welcome, Introductions, and Expectations

10:05-10:10am Resourcing the body activity

10:10-10:45am Definitions:

● Indigenous Erasure

● Implicit Bias

● White saviorism

● Brief history of colonization in United States

● Boarding / Residential Schools/ Foster System

● Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scores

● Generational Trauma

● Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

● Murdered Missing Indigenous Womxn & Two Spirit

● Man Camps & Pipelines

10:45am-11:10am White Saviorism & History

11:10am-11:25am White Saviorism & Present Day

11:25am-11:45am How to help & promote healing when you hold more power than the system involved youth and families you support

11:45am-12:00pm Questions & key takeaways

Meet Our Trainer

Nima Novak is an Indigenous Speech Language Pathologist from the Mohawk Tribe of the Iroquois Nation. She holds a Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology and a Master’s of Science in Speech Language Pathology. She has worked extensively in marginalized communities, specifically in Oxnard with Indigenous preschool population and on the west side of Chicago, where she has seen first hand the negative effects of trauma on speech, language and fluency development. She is currently studying somatic therapies, Polyvagal Theory, Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) and Reiki to promote healing across the communities she serves, with the intention of loving kindness for all. Her focus on evidence-based practices and empirical research serves to bridge the worlds of healing and science which are often relegated to different categories. Nima’s holistic approach of resilience and education teaches how research-based mindfulness practices can be used to manage trauma in the body for both her students and colleagues experiencing the effects of secondary trauma. She is dedicated to empowering her students and all womxn to pursue their passions through the cultivation of resilience and self-worth. In her school based speech therapy and basketball coaching Nima takes a trauma-informed approach to support BIPOC and all students at every level.

Nima is an advisor on Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Connection Team Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Board and mentor's current students at California State San Marcos in the Students of Speech & Language, Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity Group. For her anti-racism work, she has been featured in Vice Magazine, Medium.com, The Community Psychologist Special Feature, Authority Magazine and Thrive Global Magazine. She is a contributing founder and author of the anti-racism work group Living in Empathy. Nima has been featured in interviews on Evergreen State College, Educators for Justice IG live, SLPs Of Color IG live, the SLPs of Color podcast, the FAACT podcast and the Breaking Down Podcast. She has presented as a keynote speaker for The Rainbow Project, LGBT Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, Chicago Minds, Women Trans Femme Bike Group, Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op, University of St. Augustine Health Sciences, Community Living Thunder Bay, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Northwestern University.

This course meets the qualifications for (2.0) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.