School Presentations and Workshops

We are "Making A World Of A Difference"

Program's Vision

Empower students to advance diversity and inclusion through building upon previous lessons. Our program envisions fostering a continuous journey of understanding, respect, and collaboration, ensuring a lasting impact on their perspectives and actions.

Program's Mission

Encourage further examination of any stereotypes students may have, challenge their assumptions, and provide them with the tools they'll need to develop a better understanding of the value of our diverse Canadian society and their role within it.

What We Can Do For You

Our workshops are being offered to all teachers and students of elementary, middle and high schools students throughout Greater Saint John.

What does the workshop include?

The presentation covers diversity, inclusion, stereotypes and assumptions.
A typical presentation involves a PowerPoint, a video, games, interactive activities and lots of discussion!
For technical requirements, I will need to plug in to your Smart Board. If you do not have a Smart Board, let me know and I can make alternate arrangements!
The time of the presentations can be altered to suit the grade level. On average, elementary school presentations are 30 minutes in length. Middle school is approximately 40-45 minutes, high school is often 50-60 minutes. But all of these times can be tweaked to suit your needs.
If I have enough warning, I can potentially arrange a guest speaker from another culture who will talk about their experiences coming to Canada. This all depends on volunteer availability and scheduling.
No materials are needed. However, I often do a drawing activity with the students, during which they will need a piece of paper and a pencil, pen, marker or pencil crayon to draw with.
There is no cost for this presentation, however we do ask for assistance with mileage costs for any presentations delivered outside of Saint John and the Kennebecasis Valley
Valuing Our Differences has been delivered to thousands of students in all grade levels, across Anglophone South and beyond.

What subjects do you cover in this presentation?

We talk about diversity, stereotypes, assumptions and so much more!

What age or grade level do you speak to?

We speak to all levels, from kindergarten to grade 12. There are various versions of the presentation that are suited for each level.

What does a typical presentation involve?

A typical presentation includes a colorful powerpoint, games, activities, and lots of discussion!

Is there a cost for this presentation?

The presentation itself is free. However, if we are asked to present outside of the city of Saint John, we do ask for help with mileage costs.

What do you need for us to provide you when you come to our school?

We need access to a smart board or some kind of projection system with sound. Once I plug in my laptop, I am usually ready to roll!

How long is the presentation?

The length tends to vary depending on the age level. Usually, elementary level presentations are 30 minutes in length. Middle school is often 40-45 minutes, and high school is 50-60 minutes. This is flexible.

What group size do you present to? Can you present to large groups in theatres or gymnasiums?

We speak to any size of group. Often we speak to one classroom at a time. Or, we can speak to an entire grade level in a school theatre or gym. Again, we are very flexible!

How can I book a presentation?

The best way is to reach out to our Diversity Education Program Coordinator Gary Flanagan through email: [email protected]

How has the Valuing Our Differences Essay Competition positively impacted the school community in previous years?

If your students have participated in the Valuing Our Differences workshop, they can enter our yearly Valuing our Differences Essay Competition!

Each year we ask students who participate in the workshop to enter this competition.

Participation is strictly voluntary. Students write a 1-2 page essay, choosing one of three possible topics. All essays are read by the staff of PRUDE Inc. and prizes are given to the three best essays.

Winners will be announced in June. Prizes will be given to students during a ceremony at the school that will be arranged between PRUDE and the school staff. Students are often asked to read their essays, and the ceremony is often covered in the media.

How does the Fundamental Session specifically address the identification of behaviors and the promotion of awareness ?

Are you thinking of equipping your team with DEI knowledge? Our Fundamental Session focuses on cultural diversity, equity, behaviour identification, and awareness.

How do you believe the diverse communication impact our overall collaboration and effectiveness in achieving common goals?

Are there any signs on your team that concern you? Our Teambuilding Sessions focus on communication styles, cultural personalities impact, and cultural differences regarding teamwork.

How can we effectively adapt our recruitment, retention, and promotion strategies?

Yet since cultures, like people, have different personalities, we change certain behaviours through a cultural punishment/reward system are to fit into the green zone of that specific culture.This has a direct effect on how we work, both individually and with others, so this module will explore the issues of how cultural personalities impact on the process of recruiting, retaining and promoting culturally-different employees.

How can we enhance and adapt our hiring processes across diverse sectors ?

We can help different sectors such as Factory & Trucking, Customer Service, Social Services, Health Services, or Education organizations to take a further look at your hiring process to make sure it is set up to allow people with differences may still be perfectly suitable for.

We will examine human natural historic tendency, the equality movement etc. or help you to build associations for different groups to support.

How we conduct game session?

A creative game session worth a thousand words.

Our game is essentially a self-reflective thought exercise that guides the participants through examining who they are as an organization and how they do what they do. Through the in-person/online games, we can bring you a live experiences of diversity community.

We also have role-play or real guest speaker to display you the different communication styles and gaps.

How we conduct Live-guest session?

We have a pool of guest speakers who have different backgrounds and stories.They also can provide diverse food, performance for your specific events.

Who Do We Speak To?

Educational Institutions

Students

Teachers

Our Six-Year Impact

Youth in schools

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Teachers

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Residents across the province

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Schools (Anglophone district)

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Winners each year for the diversity essay competition

Participants

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Workshops/Speakers Series

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Organizations

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Volunteers Guset Speakers

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About Program Coordinator

Gary Flanagan

Gary has nearly 20 years of experience as a teacher, facilitator and presenter. He graduated from UNBSJ in 2007. Shortly after that, he worked as a substitute teacher in the Anglophone South School District for three years.

He has a great deal of experience working with newcomers from around the world. He worked at Saint John College where he taught Listening and Speaking, Reading and Writing to hundreds of International Students from numerous countries. He also worked at the YMCA as a Foreign Credential Recognition Officer, and later as a teacher of Level One English. In addition, between 2014 and 2018, he facilitated a program called “Money Matters”, where he spoke to people of all ages about banking, credit, budgeting and various other topics relating to financial literacy.

Gary currently works as the Diversity Education Program Coordinator at PRUDE. He delivers presentations to students of all ages in the local school district, on topics such as diversity, inclusion and stereotypes. He also speaks to adults in business and corporate settings as part of the Bridging Cultural Diversity program.

Register for the Program

Registering for this amazing workshop is easy — just follow the steps below. And if you need more assistance, contact our Program Coordinator.

Clicking on that “Register Now” button
Fill out the form
Clicking on that “Submit” button

Testimonials

Gary’s presentation with my grade 7 class at Hampton Middle School brought attention to the matter of racism and how we sometimes assume one thing when in fact it’s just not true. The presentation was to-the-point and well delivered to my students. Every class should be sure to take this opportunity to have Gary in and open the doors of communication on how we deal with stereotypes and assumptions.

Dan Foote, Teacher at Hampton Middle School

Gary’s presentation on Cultural Diversity aligned perfectly with the Grade 6 Social Studies outcomes I was exploring with my students. It was a virtual presentation during January 2022 online learning, but thanks to Gary’s approach, students were engaged and enthusiastic about the activities

Charlene Dorcas, Teacher at Macdonald Consolidated School

Building a better future through education

Student Essay Competition

Students are encouraged to participate in a 1-page-essay contest. Essays will be reviewed and the winners will be notified before the end of the school year.

1st prize – $150.00

2nd prize – $100.00

3rd prize – $50.00