Cultural Competency

Facilitators for this program should be culturally competent and sensitive. Cultural competency is taking into consideration the values and beliefs (culture) of the client (person receiving services) and those of the agency and its employees. It also includes developing services and shaping current organizational policies to effectively validate the lived experience of those individuals served. 

Cultural competency includes: 

• Awareness of one’s own cultural values
• Awareness and acceptance of cultural differences
• Understanding that people of different cultures have different ways of communicating, behaving, and problem solving
• Having basic knowledge about a client’s culture
• Ability and willingness to adapt the way one works to fit the client’s cultural background

Cultural competency is not simply:

• Decorating or having displays that show or celebrate diversity
• Sharing diverse foods
• Attending special classes about diversity and cultural competency
• Participating in special ceremonies
• Reciting phrases from historical figures related to diversity and accepting cultural differences
• Knowing a few individuals of a specific ethnicity

While these activities may accompany cultural competency, as described above, they alone do not make a program culturally competent. 

Culturally appropriate programs: 

• Demonstrate sensitivity to and understanding of cultural differences in design, implementation, and evaluation.
• Acknowledge culture as a predominant force in shaping behaviors, values, and institutions.
• Acknowledge and accept that cultural differences exist and have an impact on service delivery.
• Believe that diversity within cultures is as important as diversity between cultures.
• Respect the unique, culturally defined needs of various client populations.
• Recognize that concepts such as “family” and “community” are different for various cultures and even for subgroups within cultures.

In RCL, culturally specific approaches can be used for:

• Staff recruitment, hiring, and training
• Recruitment of youth
• Parent/guardian/trusted adult sessions
• Adaptation of materials (e.g., roleplays)

Agencies implementing RCL should regularly review their policies and procedures on:

• Valuing diversity
• Having the capacity for cultural self-assessment
• Being conscious of the dynamics inherent when cultures interact
• Having institutionalized cultural knowledge
• Adapting service delivery based on understanding of cultural diversity

Here’s why community engagement is so important:

• Cultural competence extends the concept of self-determination to the community.
• Cultural competence involves working in conjunction with natural, informal support, and helping networks within culturally diverse communities (e.g., neighborhood, civic, and advocacy associations; local/neighborhood merchants and alliance groups; ethnic, social, and religious organizations; and spiritual leaders and healers).
• Communities determine their own needs.
• Community members are full partners in decision making.
• Communities should benefit from collaboration, including deriving any health, economic, or social/community benefits.
• Community engagement should result in the reciprocal transfer of knowledge and skills among all collaborators and partners.