Cultural Competence Committee - CCC

1. Form a committee.
This Cultural Competence Committee (CCC) within your organization should have representation from policy making, administration, service delivery, and community levels. The committee can serve as the primary governing body for planning, implementing, and evaluating organizational cultural competence.

2. Write a mission statement.
Be sure that the mission statement commits to cultural competence as an integral part of all of the organization's activities. The CCC should be involved in developing this statement.

3. Find out what similar organizations have done and develop partnerships.
Don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to. Other organizations may have already begun the journey toward developing and implementing culturally competent systems. Meet with these organizations, pick their brains, and see if they will continue to work with you to develop your cultural competence. Then adapt the processes and information that are consistent with your needs to your organization.

4. Use free resources.
Aggressively pursue and use information available from federally funded technical assistance centers that catalog information on cultural competence.

5. Do a comprehensive cultural competence assessment of your organization.
Determine which instruments best match the needs and interests of your organization. Use the assessment results to develop a long-term plan with measurable goals and objectives to incorporate culturally competent principles, policies, structures, and practices into all aspects of your organization. Among others, this may include changes in your mission statement, policies, procedures, administration, staffing patterns, service delivery practices, outreach, telecommunications and information dissemination systems, and professional development activities.

6. Find out which cultural groups exist in your community and if they access community services.
What are the cultural, language, racial, and ethnic groups within the area served by your organization? Then find out if these groups access services and if they are satisfied with what they get.

7. Have a brown bag lunch to get your staff involved in discussion and activities about cultural competence.
The object of this get-together is to get your staff members to think about their attitudes, beliefs, and values related to cultural diversity and cultural competence. Invite a guest speaker.

8. Ask your personnel about their staff development needs.
Find out what your organization's staff members perceive as their staff development needs with regard to interacting with cultural groups in your area.

9. Assign part of your budget to staff development programming in cultural competence.
Analyze your budget to see where there are opportunities for staff development through participation in conferences, workshops, and seminars on cultural competence. Then commit to provide ongoing staff training and support for developing cultural competence.