Goals and Approach

Since 1974, Intercultural Institute of Montreal has been offering intercultural training programs to professionals of various institutions and community workers. These training programs are designed to respond to the needs and concerns of these social agents who are confronted with cultural diversity and to help them serve their culturally diverse clientèle adequately.

The goals of these training programs are : to help participants develop skills to understand persons from various cultural and racial backgrounds and develop intercultural competence to work in a multicultural context. These programs also aim at inciting these social agents to seek alternatives for social change.

The pedagogical approach to these training programs involves a synergy between theory and practice. It brings participants to recognize and integrate the knowledge of various cultures into their professional practices.

Thematic contents of training programs

-The dynamics of culture and cultural identity
-Cutural differences and their implications
-Psychosocial analysis of culture sock
-Awareness of cultural self identity and of "alterity"
-Deconstruction of prejudices, ethno-centrism and racism
-The process of cultural centration and decentration
-Mediation between professional culture and personal culture
-Immigration and interculturalism
-The process of adaptation, integration and interculturation
-The issues regarding public culture vs communal cultures
-Modernity and cultural pluralism
-Interculturalism and North-South relationships

IIM's training programs are adressed to: social service agencies, health-care institutions, educational institutions, international development and cooperation agencies, immigration department, municipal services, public security bureaus, financial institutions, public administration bureaus and various types of community organizations.