Reaching New Heights

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Reaching New Heights

• Assessing and Building Organizational Cultural
  Capacity Proficiency
• National Title X Grantee Meeting
• Phoenix, AZ
• September 19, 2006
• LaJuana Locklin Karen Dluhosh
• Center for Health Training

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Enduring Understandings

• Everyone has culture
• Building cultural capacity and proficiency is a
  process
• You can make a difference in building cultural
  capacity and proficiency within your organization

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Overview

• Review definitions used in the assessment process
• Describe the power of a systems approach and
  assessment process
• Review a case study
• Describe and practice using the action planning
  tools and process.

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WHAT IS CULTURE?

• Ones world view, values, beliefs, customs and
  behaviors influence by Race, ethnicity, national
  origin, language, religious beliefs/spirituality,
  socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation,
  age, marital status, ancestry, history, gender
  identity, geography, etc.
• Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment
  Leadership (APPEAL)

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Other Relevant Definitions

• Cultural Proficiency
• Possessing sufficient knowledge, skills, and
  experience to communicate effectively with and
  work together with someone from a different
  culture.
• Community Proficiency
• Evolves from the concept of cultural proficiency
  and is tied to the history of a community. Need
  to assess the diversity of experiences within the
  community and be able to connect to the current
  actions you want to take.

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Other Relevant Definitions

• Diversity
• Having individuals or organizations of different
  backgrounds belong to a group refers to the
  static make-up of a group rather than processes.
• Parity
• Being equal in process and outcomes and
  possessing the ability to equally participate in
  the planning and implementation of key
  activities, programs and policies

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Power of a Systems Approach

• Moves beyond cultural competency training for
  staff or board
• Focuses on organization components that impact
  cultural competency
• Promotes ongoing assessment and staging of
  recommendations for action

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Components of Systems Assessment
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The Terry Cross Model of Cultural Competency
(1988)

• Offers an organizational and individual
  framework.
• Describes cultural competency as movement along a
  continuum.
• Individuals and organizations can be at different
  stages of development simultaneously on the
  continuum

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Cultural Competency Continuum
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Why do this?

• The assessment demonstrates the organization's
  values about cultural and community competency
• Allows the organization an opportunity to
  strengthen its ties to the community
• Can validate staff understanding of diverse
  clients and employees
• Allows staff to identify unique attributes of a
  given cultural group which improves access,
  communication, and provision of services

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What is the Process?

• We have identified six steps in this
  organizational assessment process.

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Steps in the assessment process

• Meet with organizations leadership
• Collect data and organizational documents
• Conduct the management assessment
• Conduct staff and volunteer surveys
• Conduct client surveys and community assessment
• Review results and implement action planning
  process

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Case Study LaWonderful ClinicResults and
Recommendations Board

• Results
• Board has a goal statement that explicitly
  incorporates a commitment to cultural
  proficiency.
• Staff not aware of Boards commitment.

• Recommendations
• Board goal statement and commitment shared with
  all staff.
• Management work with staff to create a similar
  statement and commitment for the agency.

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Results and Recommendations Staff

• Results
• There were efforts to recruit more diverse staff
• Lack of bilingual staff and no formal interpreter
  services

• Recommendations
• Identify document strategies for recruiting and
  retaining diverse staff
• Expand efforts to recruit bilingual staff and/or
  provide interpreter services

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Results and Recommendations Clients

• Results
• LaWonderful Clinic has a client satisfaction
  survey in English and Spanish.

• Recommendations
• Incorporate questions in surveys that ask clients
  how their cultural needs are being met.

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Results and Recommendations Community partners

• Results
• Staff identified specific populations they were
  reaching, but could not identify current
  organizational community partnerships

• Recommendations
• Solicit input from diverse communities for staff
  recruitment and program development

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Where to go next?

• Use a stages of readiness model to develop,
  launch, and sustain cultural and community
  competency efforts.
• The model adapts Prochaska and DiClementes
  stages of change
• Pre-contemplation
• Contemplation
• Preparation
• Action
• Maintenance

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Action!

• The key for this model is the evaluation of
  agency progress from one stage to the next on any
  of the areas listed in work plan.
• Tracking changes on the matrix can help outline a
  plan on how to address cultural proficiency
  within the organizational system.

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Stages of Readiness Model
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Instructions

• Based on the result (from case study) you
  receive, identify identify the stage of readiness
  for LaWonderful Clinic
• Brainstorm strategies
• Identify one that will help move LaWonderful
  Clinic to the next stage.

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Application-Stages of Readiness Model
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So What? Now What?

• How can you make a difference in building
  cultural capacity and proficiency in your
  organization?

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Cultural Competency is not an achievement it is
a process of learning how to learn about other
cultures. Anabelle Nelson

• Culture can be vibrant and loud or sometimes
  quiet and subtle, but it is always there, shaping
  the ways in which we view the world.
• Mona Lake Jones

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LaJuana Locklin Training Manager llocklin_at_jba-cht.
com Karen Dluhosh Training Manager kdluhosh_at_jba-
cht.com