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Series Code: IAADD
Program Code: IAADD000006A
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00:28 Welcome to Issues and Answers. Today we're going to talk about 00:31 breaking down barriers and things that divide people. Our 00:34 guest today is Richard Valenzuela. Richard is president 00:38 of the Leadership Diversity Institute. He is the former 00:41 education director for Silicon Valley Faces, former executive 00:45 director and president of Any Town U.S.A. which is affiliated 00:49 with the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He is an 00:53 internationally recognized diversity specialist and he was 00:56 involved in the civil rights movement and was a foot soldier 01:00 for Dr. Martin Luther King. He consults regularly with schools, 01:03 colleges and universities across the U.S.A. Richard is going to 01:07 share his life experiences in working with over 10,000 young 01:11 people across the nation and adults on how to break down 01:15 barriers. Thank you so much, Richard, for coming to the 01:17 program. It's good to be here. I appreciate you making that 01:21 trip here to 3ABN. So, we're going to talk a little bit about 01:25 today about breaking down the barriers through... How did you 01:28 come across doing this? 01:31 Well you know ever since I was in school basically... You know 01:39 one of the first things that really impressed me was when 01:44 Sammy Davis, Jr. got married. Some of your audience may 01:48 remember him. He was a very talented black dancer and 01:53 singer and he got married. This was in the late 1950s I believe 01:57 was, it was 1959 or so. I was in junior high school at the 02:01 time. He got married to a white woman from Europe; I don't 02:06 remember her name. But anyway it made national news. How dare he 02:09 marry this white woman and he got hate mail, I'm sure, from 02:12 all over the country, all over the world, most likely. But 02:16 what really touched it off and made it a conversation in our 02:20 school was that he was going to have a biracial, multiracial 02:25 child and all of a sudden they were slamming it. They were 02:28 saying the child was going to be polka dot, there's something 02:32 wrong with that, it's going to be a half breed child. You know, 02:36 the idea that it wasn't right. And they even used such idiotic 02:41 comments such as you don't see cows and horses mixing do you, 02:45 or dogs and cats mixing. Well I was raised on a farm and I knew 02:49 that brown dogs went with white dogs, etc., you know the color. 02:53 There were separate species and that's how we were being treated 02:57 in the 1950s and 1960s, as separate species of people. 03:00 Really! Separate Species! 03:03 Yeah and that really irritated me even as a 13-year-old kid. 03:09 So it started me on this journey to make a difference and 03:14 make changes. Then I got involved with this program which 03:17 I'll explain later, that I think has met the need to a great 03:21 degree. So how about your own background 03:23 What nationality are you? 03:25 I'm Latino, I am Mexican- American. Both my grandfathers 03:28 came over from Mexico and settled in Arizona. One 03:31 homesteaded some land. The other was just running away from the 03:35 revolution I think is what the story is told. But I've grown up 03:39 there. I'm second generation and just experienced a lot of 03:42 prejudice growing up. And that's the other thing that intrigued 03:47 me that I ran into problems and when Martin Luther King came 03:52 around, Gee, well that's what I mean by being a foot soldier. 03:55 But I just became one of the people that helped the movement 03:59 and did my part and this was one way that I found, through 04:03 education. So how was it growing up at that 04:06 time for you as a person of Mexican descent. Were you able 04:10 to speak your language, speak Spanish in school? How was that? 04:13 Well that was one of the first experiences that I had. A lot of 04:17 our Latino kids at that time were told not to speak Spanish 04:20 on school grounds. If you did you would be sent to the 04:25 principal's office, you would be punished. So immediately we 04:28 began to think, hey there's something wrong with speaking 04:31 Spanish. There must be something wrong with me and that second 04:33 class citizenship began very early. Now I'm sure the purpose 04:36 was to get us to assimilate and to learn English which would 04:40 help us in the future, but the intent is not always the same as 04:44 the outcome, you know, how it's interpreted. 04:46 How do you see things today now with some many... In the media 04:51 you hear a lot of racial conflicts, you hear a lot of 04:54 socioeconomic conflicts. What do you think about the times right 04:59 now, which we live in? 05:01 Well you know we've made a lot of progress. There's no denying 05:04 that. I'm not an extremist to say hey we're still in the dark 05:07 ages. But we've made progress especially this country and I'm 05:11 a proud American. But there is still progress to be made as you 05:14 can see from the news and how quickly racial problems can 05:19 erupt, racial issues. Yeah. That's just part of the barriers 05:23 I think there's also a gender issue between men and women. 05:27 and that's something that we also touch upon in our program, 05:31 the issue of religion. How many wars and fights and what's 05:35 happening in the Middle East right now. There's a lot of 05:38 religious, interfaith conflict and that's why it was always 05:42 a pleasure to work with the National Conference of 05:44 Christians and Jews that used to deal with interfaith conflict 05:47 in communities across the country. 05:48 So now things have kind of... Some people have said that it's 05:52 not really so important to really deal with racial issues 05:57 or deal with gender issues or deal with social issues because 06:01 everybody's kind of doing much better now. Do you see that 06:06 there's still a need for this? 06:07 Oh definitely. I mean people say well we've made tremendous 06:10 progress because we have a black president but that's just 06:12 a beginning. I mean there's still a lot more. And when I 06:15 find from young people, and that's who I work with, high 06:18 school and college students, is they still are running into 06:21 issues, especially as children when growing up, of racial 06:25 problems, especially with bi-racial youth, too. I'll get 06:29 into that later too. It's the idea that separation is still 06:32 occurring. You know, there's separation on our high school 06:35 campuses. You can walk into any campus, especially in the inner 06:39 city or midway in the inner city and you'll find the groups are 06:43 separated. They're not talking, they're not communicating and 06:46 you wonder why problems can come up so quickly, yeah. 06:49 And even still even on the campuses there are issues. 06:53 In fact, it's a big issues in high schools and campuses 06:56 across the country. Segregation is there. It may not 06:59 be by law, but it's voluntary segregation. 07:03 So now you've been involved in developing a program that is 07:08 designed to address a host of these issues. Tell us about the 07:14 program. Now I didn't create the program. 07:16 It started in East L.A. in 1953, 1954 and then it came to 07:20 Arizona in 1957. It was called Any Town. It's taken on other 07:24 names now across the country. But I helped develop it and 07:27 update it in many ways and I've had many people work with me and 07:32 many ideas that I've picked up from other folk but it's a 07:35 program that's very unique in that it brings a diverse group 07:38 of youth together at a camp site preferably because you need some 07:42 degree of isolation in order for the students to think about who 07:46 they are and where they're going and what's happened to them. 07:49 You also have to create an environment of safety where they 07:52 feel safe to speak, that they're not going to get jumped on, 07:55 they're not going to get hit, they're not going to be shut 07:59 down for what they believe in, either by faith or by race or 08:03 by whatever issue. They need to express that to get it out in 08:06 the open. Because I think what's happening today a lot is we're 08:08 saying well let's not talk about it. You know, that's past, 08:12 that's old. A lot of parents are not even bringing up the issue 08:15 so it needs to be talked about. 08:16 So like can you kind of take us as best you can for those who 08:22 are watching from home who couldn't maybe go to camp. 08:26 It would be great if they could. But what's it like, what's it 08:28 like to go through the camp. What are some of the experiences 08:31 that people go through? 08:32 There are two models. One is a summer model. It's a week long. 08:36 You get to cover so many more issues. But the basic model that 08:39 I'm promoting now is during the school year where you can take 08:43 the kids out of the classroom and that's why it's called 08:45 out-of-classroom education. You take them out of the classroom 08:49 and take them to an isolated area or a retreat center and you 08:52 work with them for what I'm saying three nights and four 08:56 days. And you go through all these segments, all these 08:59 exercises based on experiential experience and emotional 09:02 intelligence. What do I mean by experiential? You put the kids 09:05 through the activity where they get to feel it and they get to 09:08 see each other and learn from each other. The whole idea of 09:11 emotional intelligence, I really believe in that that we need to 09:14 develop our emotional intelligence so we can cope 09:16 and so we can communicate and be better citizens. So that's 09:21 two of the main parts of this program is those two things. 09:26 Empathy building. You know we're hearing more about empathy now. 09:30 The idea that we're not just looking for sympathy. I'm sorry 09:33 what happened to you in history or what happened to your people. 09:38 We're looking at what the Native Americans once said, you don't 09:41 know anyone till you walk a mile in their moccasins. To walk in 09:45 somebody else's shoes, to be able to live their life for a 09:49 short moment. That's where we make progress. Sympathy didn't 09:52 do it. Apathy sure didn't do it because, you know, we don't care 09:56 what happened to you. But when you begin to feel as or with 10:01 someone, when you start seeing your friends as your brothers 10:04 and sisters, walking in their shoes, then progress begins. 10:07 And that's what the whole concept of the whole workshop 10:10 is based on. So give us an example. So how 10:16 does it start? What's the first issue that you deal with when 10:19 a person comes up to the camp. They come with young people and 10:23 they come with some of the counselors and some of the other 10:27 people so there's a safe environment. What's the first 10:30 activity that people go through? 10:31 Well I think one of the things we have to do is begin breaking 10:35 those barriers right from the start by just getting acquainted 10:39 by creating what I say not only a safe environment but a 10:43 trusting environment and create what we call a community. That's 10:48 where the name Any Town came from, create a community. 10:51 How do we do that? I'll just mention a few activities that 10:55 we begin right at the beginning. We do what we call two ups. Two 11:01 ups are response to there's no putdowns allowed during the 11:04 retreat. And we're going to do it; we're going to slip up 11:07 either because we're used to doing it. It's kind of a funny 11:10 or harassment but it can get real too. But anyway, no put 11:13 downs. But if you do, you got to give that person two ups which 11:17 means you got to say two positive things to that person 11:20 and it can't be something physical, like you have pretty 11:22 eyes or you dress well. It's got to be about their personality or 11:25 their character and it's amazing how the students start calling 11:28 each other on that. The teachers start calling each other on that 11:31 and they take it back to the school sometimes, you owe me two 11:35 ups. Yeah. And then there's the concept of rainbows where 11:39 whenever we get together as an activity we yell out rainbow. 11:42 That means you got mix it up. You can't be with the same race, 11:45 you can't be with the same gender necessarily either and 11:49 definitely not your best friends You know best friends are always 11:51 gathering together. That's the toughest thing to break in any 11:55 workshop that you do. But with rainbow everybody's got to mix 12:00 it or else, you know. Then one other thing that we do is, well 12:06 I'll come back to that later. 12:07 Right, right. So this is a type of mixer where everybody gets 12:10 in there. You plan it where people are diverse, it's not 12:13 just one group of people and if they mix up the rainbow it means 12:17 they have to get up and talk with somebody that they don't 12:20 know. Okay so then what happens? 12:22 The other thing we do is a concept of hugs. You know it's 12:25 really fascinating. In fact, I read something this morning 12:29 about the power of touch. And I think to some degree we may be 12:32 losing that in society, but also to show these students the value 12:36 of it. Now we respect cultures that don't touch or hug much or 12:39 families that don't hug too much but we make it an option. We say 12:43 it's okay to hug here. But we may also put some humor into 12:46 it. We tell them, okay, there are some hugs that are not 12:49 allowed. I don't know if you recall those but the hugs are 12:52 you know, you can't have a bear hug or pick someone up, you 12:55 might drop them. You can't have an A-frame hug where you're 12:58 barely touching, very impersonal hug. And, of course, the sexual 13:02 hug is not allowed at camp at all. In fact, we're one of the 13:06 longest running male/female camps in the country because 13:10 we set up some restrictions on that. So it's not there to pick 13:13 up somebody, you know. We want to deal with seeing people as 13:17 people and it's okay to hug. And I even make the point that 13:21 there's an experiment that was done years ago, 45-50 years ago, 13:25 where they had these infants in an orphanage and in this 13:29 orphanage they split up the infants, 10 kids in one room, 13:33 10 babies in the other room and this experiment didn't last very 13:36 long because they hugged the 10 kids in one room and they picked 13:40 them up and held them a lot. The kids in the other room they 13:43 just ignored. They only picked them up when they had to feed 13:46 them and that was it. So guess what happened? Within a few 13:49 hours they found, this is an true experiment, I think it's 13:53 been done more than once. The kids that were picked up and 13:57 cuddled and all they were smiling, they were eating. 14:03 The kids that were not they began to give up, stop smiling, 14:08 stop eating and they turned their faces to the wall and just 14:12 started to give up. 14:16 And that's exactly what we don't want young people and people to 14:20 do, to give up and that's why people give up. You're saying 14:23 the power of touch because they're not being held, they're 14:27 not being, you know, having that human interaction. It's just 14:31 that crucial, it's just that important. 14:33 So for some kids that have never been hugged as little kids it's 14:37 amazing to see them. 14:38 Do you have that where kids come to camp and say they have never 14:41 been hugged? The other norm that we have in 14:44 many families in our society is you stop hugging little boys 14:47 after they're four or five years old because of the fear of what 14:50 they might become. 14:52 Or you may make them too soft, or you many make them 14:56 whatever. I think that concept that it's not a manly thing to 15:01 do is what's hurting relationships in our society. 15:04 Wow. So they get kind of like the icebreaker, they learn about 15:11 the rainbow and hugging. What's next? 15:12 The first night, we have to start quickly, and this is a 15:17 very condensed program, is that we start with the idea of 15:21 understanding prejudice and discrimination. What is it? 15:25 What makes it. What are the stereotypes out there that 15:28 constantly hearing? What do you say to that? 15:30 What we do is we split the kids up by the different ethnic or 15:34 racial groups and we send one group out of the building for a 15:37 few minutes and then we have the rest of the group come up with 15:41 all the stereotypes or slurs they've heard about that group. 15:44 And it's amazing the list that they come up with. Well now the 15:47 group comes back in. This is done in confidence. 15:49 You're saying one of the groups goes out, maybe it's the Latino 15:53 kids or maybe it's the Native American kids, African American 15:58 kids or European descent kids, or Asian kids and the rest of 16:02 the whole group they're all talking about the slurs that 16:06 they've heard growing up or experienced about that group 16:09 that's out. The stereotypes and the slurs. 16:12 So we get a full list of all these. And I make sure this is 16:16 not a superficial program. This is a real program in order to 16:20 the feelings out. So we get them up there and each group comes 16:23 back in and reflect on with ones affect them or hurt them the 16:26 most or would affect or hurt their family the most if they 16:29 were there to hear them or see them. By the time that we're 16:32 through that evening you've got about seven or eight lists of 16:36 different groups and all of a sudden the empathy building 16:40 begins. The students realize why they're there. I think they 16:44 really have to know that. You see this is also called the 16:48 leadership program and I don't call it that just to be 16:51 marketing or be superficial about that. I really feel and I 16:55 make reference to all the students as leaders or potential 16:58 leaders. I really believe every kid, every young person, has the 17:01 potential to be a leader, not only to guide themselves as 17:04 leadership but to guide others. So we try to emphasize that 17:08 throughout the program that they're there for a reason. 17:11 They're there to influence their friends or their circle of 17:14 influences as we call it. 17:15 So after your deal with the racial slurs and you say it's 17:23 like a big poster that's on the wall that everyone can see and 17:26 then they kind of process. What happens, what's the next 17:28 exercise that you do with the kids? 17:30 Well, yeah, the processing goes on and I think that's a real 17:34 important part. You just don't do an exercise and walk away. 17:37 You've got to process what can you gain from that activity, 17:40 what can you learn. And it's amazing how the kids express 17:43 themselves. Now I know how it feels. Now I know that it's not 17:46 over because there are even new stereotypes and new slurs 17:48 coming out all the time. So the kids all of a sudden see this. 17:52 The other thing I think one of the learnings that they get 17:55 from the program is they're not the only one. Because a lot of 17:58 them think oh this is just happening to my group or my 18:00 people. We've had it the worst. Then they see all these lists 18:03 and all these emotions coming from these students saying this 18:07 is what hurts me and there are some ugly things that come up 18:11 there. If we have time we'll go over those. But the next 18:15 activity, the next afternoon, we do have discussion groups or 18:19 sharing groups as we call them. Those are guided also but it's 18:23 mainly just expressing what they felt and what they learned from 18:27 the previous activity. We give them guidelines such as agree 18:32 to disagree. Sometimes that has to happen. I statements, you 18:36 speak for yourself not for all your group like all blacks or 18:39 all Latinos think this. No, you speak for yourself. Those are 18:43 important guidelines. Then the confidentiality of keeping it 18:46 within the group. But anyway, then we move on to the 18:50 following afternoon. We deal with privilege. And I know 18:53 there's a lot of talk today about white privilege in our 18:56 society. But there are other privileges too that we need to 19:00 discuss, not only just white privilege. Then there's also 19:03 light skin privilege, not just white. I mean even... 19:06 Yeah BMT just did a... there's a program someone just did and 19:10 you're hearing a lot of different programs of people 19:11 dealing with the light and the dark. But tell us about this 19:14 privilege. What is it? What do you mean by privilege? 19:17 Well the whole idea of privilege or advantage that 19:20 we are born without our say so, without our individual choice. 19:26 We are given color, we're given sexual identity, or even the 19:32 family we're born into, we didn't have a choice, and I 19:35 mention that to the students before we do the exercise. I say 19:38 you are born into the world and here's what happens to you and 19:41 you don't have a choice. But here's what happens to you as 19:44 you grow up. So we do this exercise where people step 19:47 forward or step back depending on if the question refers to a 19:52 certain privilege. Like what are some of the 19:54 questions that you ask? 19:56 Well one of the questions is number one is if you've ever had 20:01 a job, or did you get a job because of someone you knew of 20:06 someone in your family knew? 20:08 Then they would step forward? 20:09 Yes they would step forward if they had that advantage or 20:11 privilege of knowing someone. So then we get into the 20:14 discussion of network and friendship making out of that, 20:17 because that's what often happens is that we have that 20:20 privilege of who somebody knows. Economics: I wish my father 20:24 would have been born rich. I would have had so many more 20:28 privileges. I would have been able to travel. Gender: There's 20:32 still an advantage in this society, especially in the world 20:37 to being a man versus a woman. There's advantage and privilege 20:40 to that. There's the education, one that's hardly ever mentioned 20:44 but this is how we emphasize to the students, hey you need to 20:47 get educated because historically if any group wanted 20:52 to advance, education was the way to do that for the most 20:55 part. And you could see when they took away education 20:58 why they did it. During slavery. There were I think 13 states 21:02 that had laws against educating the slave. Why? Because they 21:05 didn't want them to question. During the middle ages the 21:09 British had the Irish as serfs and it was against the rules to 21:13 educate the Irish. And there were not books 21:15 that were available to the common folk. The Bible was the 21:19 first book printed at the end of the middle ages, the dark ages. 21:25 It was the desire to see something, to be able to read 21:29 and to be able to get that word out. So you're right. It is a 21:34 powerful tool, education. It definitely is. 21:36 And then we talk about sexual orientation, being heterosexual 21:41 versus homosexual. The there's all these privileges that 21:46 society provides for people and some get them and some don't. 21:51 And we're still either reaping the benefits from those past 21:55 laws, even though we don't have the laws. We're either 21:59 benefitting or we're being the victims of some of that past. 22:04 So you're saying if you're dealing specifically with the 22:08 child or if you're dealing with the student, being raised in 22:12 that kind of a family. They had nothing to do with it. They were 22:17 just in a particular family set of circumstances; two-parent 22:22 household, maybe we're a family that had inherited money or 22:27 inherited privileges or businesses. What about 22:30 immigrants? Immigrants the same way. I often 22:33 ask the students if your parents were here, your grandparents, 22:36 where would they be? And if they have immigrant parents or 22:39 grandparents, they would be behind them. Then I also talk 22:41 about the kids that aren't there. 22:43 You say they would be behind them. What do you mean? 22:44 You know, we put them in a big open area, either a parking lot 22:49 or a field of some sort and they step forward and step back 22:53 depending on if it's a negative. 22:55 Some of the questions? 22:57 Well again... Oh there's also the social, what I call social 23:03 support, family support. Did you grow up with 50 books in 23:08 your house. That one has to deal more with education. But 23:13 did your parents take you to plays or fairs. And some kids 23:17 have never been to a play or an art fair. 23:21 So how is it when these kids are all lined up, and the adults 23:25 too, right, adult counselors come, so in that group everybody 23:29 is involved with this. What does it look like? Are they all 23:32 pretty much together as a group... 23:35 Well if I have a good mix of white and black and Latino and 23:39 others there's usually a few more whites in the front. It's 23:42 usually a mix in the middle and in the back is mainly minority 23:44 members, both staff and delegates. But one of the things 23:48 I stress so they don't feel bad about where they are placed is 23:51 this is not where they're at now this is where they came from 23:55 especially the adults that now have degrees and are educators 23:58 or administrators there. But sometimes the minority, they're 24:01 in the back because the questions are asked in that 24:04 manner. But I also say that you're the survivors for the 24:08 students because now there's a lot of kids here that should be 24:11 here but are not because they either dropped out, turned to 24:15 drugs, turned to alcohol and they fell off the edge and you 24:18 don't see them anymore. So I have them do a couple things. 24:22 I have them look straight ahead first and say if you never look 24:25 back you don't know what's happening. With them each comes 24:28 responsibility, one of the major points that I make. You have 24:32 privilege because you're here at this workshop and you've 24:35 survived some of the things that have happened to you and your 24:38 family. So now you've got to help someone else. So there's a 24:41 lot of lessons in the discussion of privilege. It's not just you 24:45 have privilege and I don't or it's a white man's world, this 24:49 type of thing. So how do you deal with the 24:53 violence or the things that kind of cause people to act violently 24:57 the young people, the gangs and all that kind of thing? What do 25:02 to really, how do you see this program can actually to break 25:06 down the barriers. Well one of the things I've 25:09 always like to have is kids that are kind of on the edge of 25:13 either going to gang activity or not and this can make a big 25:16 difference on many of these kids. And I've had some gang 25:19 members that have turned themselves around because all of 25:21 sudden they see something to be proud of. Because one of the 25:24 other programs we have there is what we call cultural pride 25:26 night where every group makes a presentation about their 25:29 culture, their contributions to America and the world, 25:32 immigration pattern, major customs and traditions that 25:35 they're most proud of and also the stereotypes that they wish 25:38 to eliminate. And it's amazing how creative young people can 25:41 get when you give them those four options of coming up with 25:44 a presentation. But what I've noticed is these kids walk 25:47 out 10 feet higher because they're proud of who they are. 25:50 So many kids are put down. It's amazing. One of the groups 25:54 that's very unique is the biracial/multiracial kids 25:56 because that's an increasing number, thank goodness. 25:59 Yeah in fact America will be by 2050 they say the average 26:02 American is like almost the racial groups that we see in 26:06 the United States are not even going to be close to being the 26:09 same. It's such a melting pot so this is really important work 26:12 that you're doing. Yeah this is, I believe, our 26:15 final taboo or biggest barrier is to overcome that 26:18 intermarriage thing or inter-date thing. Kids are still 26:21 being told marry your own kind instead of looking for common 26:26 interests. So, but we have a gender night too where we talk 26:30 about gender power. How can we empower men and women to get 26:33 along better. We come up with stereotypes and messages that 26:36 they've heard. Many of the messages that we get in our society are negative 26:40 messages and some people apply them. Like no means yes, having 26:44 to deal with sexual encounter. That's sweeping across the 26:47 country right now at major colleges and universities 26:49 because they're being told you better start looking into these 26:53 cases more. But that's a common thinking. There are a lot of 26:57 messages that we don't always recognize. But we recognize them 27:00 up at camp so they can see them and do something about them. 27:03 The act of violence between men and women. The couple messages 27:08 that always go up are never hit a woman, which most boys agree 27:12 and most students agree that's good but there are always a few 27:16 that vote for never hit a woman unless she hits you first. So I 27:20 get up there and explain okay how hard are you going to hit 27:24 her, when are you going to stop and what happens because of 27:27 this. Is this a violent message and of course it is. It has the 27:31 effect on our society. 27:32 Richard, I thank you so much for coming. There are so many great 27:35 issues that have been covered through here and things to break 27:39 down barriers. I want to also thank our audience at home for 27:43 joining us on today's program. If you're interested in learning 27:46 more about the camps go ahead and contact Dare to Dream 27:49 Network. We'll have Richard's information available. He is 27:52 available to come and conduct camps across the country as 27:57 well as there may be a camp near you. You know Christ came to 28:01 tear down the divides between people, to break down those 28:04 barriers and he has a lot of different ways that he's doing 28:07 that. Let us decide ourselves that we're going to be that 28:10 committee of one, we're going to be that person that's going to 28:13 go and make the difference and break down the barriers and 28:16 bring people together. Thank you for joining us. |
Revised 2016-03-30