We are Interpreters & Bridge Builders: Creating Dialogues and Crossing Cultural Divides

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~ We Support Human Rights, Freedom & Diversity ~

News and Updates: 

-3 Working Models to Enhance Engagement and Dialogue can be found via the Ways of Helping page – HERE

-National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC) Webinar on Homeless Outreach and Pretreatment

~Celebrating the new book~  Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness: From Pretreatment Strategies to Psychologically Informed Environments

Thus far more than 33% of book related profits ($3894.50) have been given to national (U.S.) charities that support the goal and ideal of ending homelessness.  Please see Donations page for more details

Now available via Barnes & NobleAmazon Kindle e-bookHardcover, and Paperback. All formats are also available worldwide via Book Depository and  Amazon-UK , Amazon CA, as well as other outlets-

Or order paperbacks directly from the publisher Here – Save 20% and get FREE Shipping when you use coupon code HELPHOMELESS 

Cross-Cultural Context

During the summer of 2018 I had the honor of visiting my friends and co-authors from the UK. They are: Robin Johnson, John Conolly, Ray Middleton, and Suzanne Quinney. Together we had recently completed a book project entitled-

Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness: From Pretreatment Strategies to Psychologically Informed Environments

As you may have surmised I live and work in the States, so in many respects the whole project was a transatlantic dialogue on homelessness. However, upon digging a little deeper it became evident that the dialogue that I sought was actually occurring on many fronts that included, but also transcended transatlantic considerations and really spoke to different cultures, roles, types of relationships, identity, power dynamics and so on.

Cultural divides in need of crossing existed between workers and clients, clients and different systems of care that we had hoped to access, Peer and non-Peer workers, the different sub-groups of clients and workers – young and old, male, female, LGBTQ, across the whole spectrum of religion, race, and varied ethnicities, etc.

So, this became a study of how to both respect and bridge differences by fostering effective and meaningful communication. As I like to say (Levy,  2013), “We are interpreters and bridge builders. Engagement is the foundation of our work and our main tool is Common Language Construction.”

The quest toward ‘productive dialogue’ is critical to building the person-centered relationships* that both PIE and Pretreatment approaches value and defines as an essential part of our practice.

*Relationships are central to the PIE 2.0 framework and more information can be found HERE.

Our latest book project Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness delves further into some specific methods of dialogue paired with numerous narratives that demonstrate how cultural divides can be crossed in order to promote person centered relationships.

New Book Review:

-Very positive review by Matthew Bennett in the Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless – 27(2), 2018.  It is entitled Shifting perspectives and finding gold: a review of Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness  – An excerpt of the review can be found here 

 

 

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