National Child Welfare Association

Enhancing Cultural Competence in Human Service Settings

Duration, Fees, Registration

About the Workshop

Overview

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) is dedicated to promoting improved human services for children. In accomplishing these ends, NICWA seeks to promote culturally competent services for children and families. Social service agencies, commissions, boards of directors, public health agencies, court systems, and educational institutions may benefit from the contents of this workshop. Specifically, human service providers will be more effective working cross-culturally.

The training is designed to develop cultural competence through the policies, procedures, practices, and values of an organization and the skills of the individuals that perform the service. It uses worldview differences as a primary focus for understanding the impact of cultural differences.

Focus of Training

Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, agency structures, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or professional, that acknowledge and incorporate, at all levels, the importance of culture, the assessment of cross-cultural relations, vigilance toward the dynamics that result from cultural difference, the expansion of cultural knowledge, and the adaptation of service to fit the client's cultural context. Through understanding and management of differences, organizations can improve the quality of services and outcomes for clients. This workshop examines how problem identification and solution seeking are shaped by worldview and how health care providers can adapt their services to better meet the unique cross-cultural challenges of working in diverse communities.

Learning Format

Participants will experience a range of training techniques including brief lecture, group exercises, group activities, and visual aids.

Structuring the Training and Follow-up

NICWA utilizes an approach designed to facilitate organizations moving toward cultural competence. Cultural competence usually does not grow out of one or more training sessions, but rather out of a comprehensive plan involving policy, structure, practice, and values. In order to develop resources within the organization, NICWA can assist staff from your organization in the development and planning process. This plan can be based on an internal assessment of your current level of capacity to work cross-culturally in an effective manner.