Books featuring CERI
Based on nine years of research, The Power of Collective Wisdom and the trap of collective folly shows how we can reliably tap into the extraordinary co-creative potential that exists whenever human beings gather together. Stories and historical examples illustrate how collective wisdom has emerged in a range of cultures, settings and traditions, and the authors offer a set of practices to help readers realize the key lessons of the book.
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Excerpt:
“Seeing the Future in the Present Moment: Hidden in Plain View”
The Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI), in Oakland, California, is a powerful example of community, mediated by love. The fact that it evolved as a response to the wounds generated by war, torture, and genocide makes it a telling illustration of what power lies in the group. Empowerment came from amplifying existing elements of group cohesion, respect for interior realms, and desire to repair and renew the community.
Under the Dragon: California's New Culture explores the daily mix of California's new communities through photographs and commentary.
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Excerpt:
“The Iranian Therapist and Her Cambodian Clients”
Dr. Mona Afari studied Lay’s impassive expression as the translator rendered his words from Cambodian into English. “My mother and father,” she heard the translator repeat, “…the Khmer Rouge take them. I never see again.”
Mona watched Lay’s eyes spark with pain as he recounted the story of his parents’ murder, and she asked herself the question that had haunted her since founding the weekly therapy group: Could she—an Iranian-born, female therapist—breach the chasm separating her from these six middle-aged male survivors of the Cambodian holocaust and provide the help they desperately needed?
Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services by Jerry V. Diller provides the tools you need to become a successful and effective counselor. This innovative book covers a variety of topics, ranging from the general principles of cultural diversity to how to work with clients from various cultures. It's an ideal resource to prepare you for a successful career in counseling.
Each chapter of Refugees in America focuses on a person from a different country—from a 93-year-old Polish grandmother who came to the United States after surviving the horrors of Auschwitz to a young undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who became an American college graduate, despite being born impoverished and blind. Some have found it easy to reinvent themselves in the US, while others have struggled to adjust to its new culture, language, prejudices and norms.
Excerpt from Chapter 7 (dedicated CERI community member Vanny Loun):
I remember an old man saying to my mum: “You know when your house gets robbed, you still have a house, you still have furniture. But when your house gets bombed and burnt, you don't have anything. You are homeless, you are just lucky to be alive.” Since that day, I never saw my village, but I always wanted to go home. My mum never took me back.
Like so many other Cambodians, Vanny Loun saw her house and life destroyed by the genocidal actions of the Khmer Rouge.