Cultural Competency Advisory Committee Update and Presentation

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Cultural Competency Advisory CommitteeUpdate and
Presentation

• Presented by
• Stephanie Roberson, MCAH/OFP DV Program Chief
• Teri McCune-Oostra and Beckie Masaki,
• CC Advisory Committee Members

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Why Should We Consider Culture Violence?

• Culture shapes an individuals experience of
  violence.
• Culture shapes the perpetrators and communitys
  response to intervention and acceptance of
  responsibility.
• Culture shapes access to other services that
  might be crucial for the survivor and the whole
  family.
• The culture of the system, the advocate or the
  professional will impact outcome.

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Working Assumptions

• All cultures are contradictory in that there are
  both widespread acceptance of violence as part of
  society and traditions of resistance. All
  cultures have values that are oppressive as well
  as those that are empowering and nurturing.
• Each survivor, perpetrator, and child is not only
  a member of their community, but a unique
  individual with their own responses. The
  complexity of a persons response to violence is
  shaped by multiple factors.
• Each individual comes into any encounter with
  cultural experiences and perspectives that might
  differ from those of the same group.

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Definition of Culture

• A critical definition of culture refers to shared
  experiences or commonalities that have developed
  and continue to evolve in relation to changing
  social and political contexts, based on
• -- race -- disability status
• -- ethnicity -- immigration status
• -- national origin -- education
• -- sexuality -- geographic location
• -- gender -- rural, urban, suburban
• -- religion -- time, or
• -- age -- other axes of identification within
• -- class the historical context of
• oppression.

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Cultural Identity

• Cultural Identity How a person defines
  themselves culturally, based on their unique
  experiences.
• Might contain contradictory, multi-faceted and
  often-changing elements. Persons might identify
  more strongly with one culture than another,
  might experience several identities
  simultaneously or might shift between identities.
  
• Every individual, regardless of initial
  appearance has a rich cultural identity.

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Culture Does Matter

• Cultural identities are individual and complex,
  AND
• Cultural commonalities do exist and affect
  violence, survival, services, and support, BUT
• They are often over-simplified, and assumed where
  they may not exist, and overlooked when they may
  be there, AND
• Consequences of assumptions can be serious, and
  are rooted in unequal power and privilege.

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Cultural Competency Involves

• Individual Complexities
• Cultural Commonalities
• Power Privilege
• Yourself
• Your Organization
• Dominant Culture of Society Systems

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Dominant Culture of Society Systems
Information provided by the survivor and child
General Cultural Knowledge
Cultural Competency
Your own cultural identity biases
Culture of the Organization
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Cultural Competency Begins With

• Being aware of ones own assumptions and biases
  about the survivor, perpetrator, child(ren), and
  their family, friends, and/or community context.
• Recognizing power (i.e language, immigration
  status, professional status, race, class, etc.)
  and its possible implications.
• Listening to the survivor and their
  interpretation of their culture.
• Building general cultural knowledge
• Building authentic relationships and reciprocal
  collaborations with different communities.

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Process of Cultural Competence

• Cultural competence does not mean learning as
  many characteristics as possible about every
  culture.
• It is not a one-time, finite achievement. It is a
  lifelong process that is applied to ensure
• 1. an understanding of the context of the story,
  and
• 2. an analysis of the facts and circumstances of
  a particular
• case.

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This Framework Guides Us To

• Combine general knowledge about various cultures
  with specific information provided by the
  individual.
• Have a sense of what questions to ask, and/or to
  understand a context from which to ask questions.
• Address all five primary components of cultural
  competency in our work.

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DHS Cultural Competency Requirements

• Cultural competency policy statement
• Cultural competency implementation plan
• Assessment tool
• Implementation plan

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Guideline and Assessment Tool

• This tool has the following areas
• Organizing Principles
• Staff Diversity
• Program Management and Operations
• Working Atmosphere
• Outreach and Community Collaboration
• Language Access

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Remember

• You do not need to know everything.
• Everyone is learning and unlearning. It is okay
  to make mistakes, to challenge each other, and to
  grow.
• While cultural competency is a lifelong process,
  celebrate the milestones !
• You are taking steps to provide needed services
  to the community around you--support each others
  contributions!

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Table Exercise

• 5 minutes to gather your thoughts about the
  questions on your own.
• 10 minutes to share in pairs.
• Pair with someone you do not know or do not
  normally get an opportunity to talk with.
• share the time so each gets to talk about her/his
  program

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• What is one population group that your program is
  culturally competent in serving?
• What are some aspects of your org that contribute
  to your success in serving this group along the
  lines of cc implementation plan? (i.e. organizing
  principles, program, working atmosphere,
  community involvement/ collaboration, language
  access)
• What is one population group that your program is
  most culturally challenged in serving?
• Looking at your ability to serve one segment of
  the population successfully, can you identify
  ways that you could build on that success to
  expand your cultural competency for other
  populations?