Capacity Building and Cultural Competence When Working with Minority Populations

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Capacity Building and Cultural Competence When
Working with Minority Populations

• Fabricio Balcazar, Ph.D.
• Yolanda Suárez, Ph.D.
• Center on Capacity Building for Minorities with
  Disabilities Research
• University of Illinois at Chicago

NCDDR-sponsored Webcast - November 16, 2006 -
200 PM CST
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Conceptual Framework of the Research and
Training Activities
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Capacity Building for Program Evaluation

• Utilizes a participatory program evaluation
  model to actively involve consumers and agency
  staff in the process of identifying service
  needs, selecting program goals, developing a
  logic model for success, and implementing and
  evaluating change efforts to improve services.
• (20 sites in 5 years)
• PI Yolanda Suárez
• University of Illinois at Chicago

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Our Participatory Capacity Building Process
CBO
CBO
VR ILC
2 CBOs ILC 2 VR
CBO
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Capacity Building Domains
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Evaluation Capacity Building Activities

• Collaborations with 9 organizations and their 13
  grantees or affiliates, nationwide
• A total of 22 organizations and 97 staff
  involved, some with staff from multiple
  offices/locations
• More than 13 evaluation trainings conducted
• Ongoing consultation and technical assistance
  with all sites
• Intensive involvement
• 2 contacts per month often weekly
• 2 models
• On site
• Distance model with periodic on-site visits

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Evaluation Capacity Building Outputs and Outcomes

• Outputs
• Participants reported that training was very
  useful and that they were very satisfied on a 1-5
  scale
• Key concepts 4.46
• Outcomes framework 4.48
• Exercises 4.63
• Materials and handouts 4.61
• Usefulness of training 4.63
• Outcomes
• Improvements in Knowledge All of the 9
  organizations have developed evaluation plans and
  are launching evaluations of their programs
• Improvements in Practice 4 of the 9
  organizations are actively collecting data to
  inform program improvement
• Improvements in Policy 3 of the 9 organizations
  have built evaluation capacity building into
  their strategic planning and are working towards
  systems change

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A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

• FOR PROMOTING
• CULTURAL COMPETENCE

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What is Cultural Competence (CC)?

• It is a process that allows individuals to
  accept, respect and work with others who are
  different from them
• Cultural competence is the result of awareness of
  your own biases and knowledge of the factors that
  influence cultural differences and similarities
• The process requires the development of skills,
  attitudes and behaviors that allow individuals to
  understand and interact effectively with people
  from other cultures.

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Our Cultural Competence Model

• Based on Papadopoulos Lee (2002)
• Presents a separated analysis of the components
  and the factors that influence CC
• The components reflect the circularity of the
  process of becoming CC
• The factors reflect the differences and
  similarities within ethnic and cultural groups

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(No Transcript)
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FACTORS THAT IMPACT CULTURAL DIVERSITY
RACE
KNOWLEDGE OF RIGHTS SERVICES
SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT
LANGUAGE
BELIEFS / VALUES
SOCIAL IDENTITY
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Characteristics of the Model

• The process is on-going
• The components are intertwined
• The process is contextual
• The process is developmental
• The process produces multiple outcomes
• The process is experiential
• Goal setting is necessary to attain
  organizational change

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Cultural Competence Training Activities

• 20 trainings conducted
• 62 organizations (community-based organizations
  and VR offices)
• Over 505 staff members 
• Follow-along consultation and technical
  assistance related to agency goals for up to 6
  months after training
• 44 organizations elected to set goals and
  participate in follow-up interviews
• We successfully completed between 1 and 3
  follow-up interviews with 35 of these
  organizations

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Cultural Competence Training Outputs and Outcomes

• Outputs
• Very satisfied with training (Average 4.83 on
  1-5 scale)
• Outcomes
• Changes in practice 135 goals to change
  practice(s) were set and maintained
• Participants made progress toward goal
  accomplishment (55.5 of goals)
• Participants accomplished goal (21.5 of goals)
• Examples of goal accomplishment
• 1 agency developed a collaboration with their
  states welfare to work program to hire bilingual
  staff as Para-professionals (Spanish Somalia).
• 1 agency was successful in obtaining funding to
  produce the first ever Developmental Disability
  Diversity Newsletter.
• 1 agency hired 3 minorities in upper management
  positions.
• Change in policy 1 agency developed a policy to
  require health care professionals that want to be
  included on their preferred vendor list to attend
  at least one diversity/cultural competence
  training a year.

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Recommendations for Conducting Culturally
Competent Research

1. Recognize that as cultural beings, we might hold
   attitudes and beliefs that can detrimentally
   influence our perceptions and interactions with
   individuals who are different from us (this is in
   part due to upbringing, negative past
   experiences, lack of experience with the group,
   media influences, lack of knowledge, stereotypes,
   and class differences).

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Recommendations (continued)

1. Comparative studies should be carefully
   conducted avoid using white middle class data to
   set the standard for comparison.
2. Utilize multiple strategies for community entry
   (personal contacts, gate keepers,
   paraprofessionals, volunteer to help).

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Recommendations (continued)

• 4. Outreach should include multiple strategies,
  including direct community contact through
  paraprofessionals, radio and/or local newspaper
  announcements in the target population language
  (when available), and fliers and posters in local
  stores and agencies frequented by the target
  group.

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Recommendations (continued)

• 5. When not finding protocols and assessments
  used with the target community keep cultural
  appropriateness present in the development of all
  materials. Remember it is not enough to just
  translate materials and protocols.

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Recommendations (continued)

• 6. When utilizing strategies to ensure community
  input and active participation in research, ask
  gate keepers and paraprofessionals who represent
  the community best? and How do you assure
  community-wide representation?

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Recommendations (continued)

• Intervention programs and/or services developed
  for members of the majority culture should be
  carefully scrutinized before being used with
  minority groups.
• Before reaching out to new populations, make an
  effort to improve the cultural competence of your
  research team with regards to the particular
  target group.
• Make an effort to recruit multicultural staff
  (including students and/or paraprofessionals),
  since they improve your effectiveness in
  interacting with the community.
•  

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Conclusions

• Participatory evaluation is an effective strategy
  to improve the quality of services and outcomes
  for individuals with disabilities.
• The process of participatory evaluation can
  change organizational culture.
• Cultural competence is an ongoing challenge for
  researchers given the great diversity of our
  nations population.

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Conclusions (continued)

• Researchers can set up mechanisms to promote
  cultural competence among research teams through
  recruitment, training, exposure and engagements
  with diverse groups.
• Effective outreach efforts require multiple
  channels of communication and the direct
  involvement of community members in the research
  team.

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Conclusions (continued)

• The Center is making speedy progress in meeting
  all of its original goals.
• Next year, on July 25-27 we will have our
  national conference and plan to edit a text book
  to influence the training of future professionals
  and researchers in the field.

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References

• American Psychological Association (2003).
  Guidelines on multicultural education, training,
  research, practice, and organizational change.
  American Psychologist, 58, 377-402.
• Balcazar, F. E. (2001). Strategies for reaching
  out to minority individuals with disabilities.
  The Research Exchange, 6(2), 9-13.
• National Council on Disability (2003). Outreach
  and people with disabilities from diverse
  cultures A review of the literature. Retrieved
  from http//www.ncd.gov/newsroom/advisory/cultural
  /cdi_litreview.htm