Embracing Cultural Competency

Patricia St. Onge, Beth Applegate, Vicki Asakura, Monika K Moss

Description

Start the Conversation
No “how-to” manual exists on cultural competency. And, compared to other topics in nonprofit management, little exists on the skills and strategies needed to address racism and inequity. Building cultural competency is an ongoing journey that nonprofit leaders choose to take because they know the end result will be a more inclusive, connected, and effective organization. Patricia St. Onge and her contributing authors help readers grapple with the urgent issues that can transform capacity builders into change agents in the nonprofit sector.
Embracing Cultural Competency starts the dialogue on how organizations can start building capacity. Nonprofit capacity builders will
• discover a framework to help discuss issues related to cultural competency
• learn about methods, practices, and values that define cultural competency and culturally based work in nonprofit capacity building
• understand the complexities within ethnic communities
• gain insights into the nature of institutionalized racism
Through a range of methods—literature review, personal interviews, peer dialogue, insights of contributing authors—readers get a mosaic of perspectives that surround cultural competency. Plus, the book presents the insights of authors who represent five major ethnic communities in the United States: Asian-Pacific Islander, American Indian, African American, White, and Latino.

Sujets

• Management
• General
• Business
• Economics
• General officer
• Gestion et management

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 10 juillet 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781618589279
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Embracing Cultural Competency
“This book guides readers to a better understanding that cultural competency is not a soft skill but a core issue, requiring work and time. The information has relevance wherever people of various backgrounds need to come together to accomplish common objectives.”
— Yvette Larkin, Senior Program Officer, Associated Black Charities
 
“Many different audiences can find lessons in this information. It reinforces the importance of examining and dismantling institutional inequities, rather than focusing solely on interpersonal development.”
— Adrienne Mansanares , Program Officer, Inclusiveness Project at The Denver Foundation
 
“I appreciate how this text helps readers become aware of racial privilege and how it influences one’s work, often in subtle ways. Capacity builders who work across many types of nonprofits, foundations, and community groups will find this book accessible and helpful.”
— Katherine Pease, Principal, Katherine Pease & Associates
 
“Real world, first person examples in this book help personalize issues that might otherwise appear abstract to some people. This collection of voices does a great job of providing diverse perspectives and tools. This book is long overdue and goes a long way in addressing many challenges that keep organizations from becoming more successful.”
— Elissa Perry, Principal, Think.Do.Repeat
 
“An impressive breadth and depth of perspectives are offered in this book. Readers will find tools to help them gain greater cultural competency in working with communities—and become more inclusive in their organizational processes.”
— Scot T. Spencer, Manager of Baltimore Relations, Annie E. Casey Foundation
 
“Great personal stories and perspectives can be found here. This text will motivate readers to start their own internal conversation about issues related to cultural competency.”
— Suzanne Bronheim, Senior Policy Associate, National Center for Cultural Competence, Georgetown University

Copyright © 2009 by Alliance for Nonprofit Management
Fieldstone Alliance is committed to strengthening the performance of the nonprofit sector. Through the synergy of its consulting, publishing, and research and demonstration projects, Fieldstone Alliance provides solutions to issues facing nonprofits, funders, and the communities they serve. Fieldstone Alliance was formerly Wilder Publishing and Wilder Consulting departments of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. For information about other Fieldstone Alliance publications, see the last page of this book. If you would like more information about Fieldstone Alliance and our services, please contact Fieldstone Alliance at
 
800-274-6024
www.FieldstoneAlliance.org
 
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
First printing, June 2009
 
Cover image: © Sirylok/Dreamstime.com

Limited permission to copy
We have developed this publication to benefit nonprofit and community organizations. To enable this, we grant the purchaser of this work limited permission to reproduce forms, charts, graphics, or brief excerpts from the book as long as the reproductions are for direct use by the individual or organization that purchased the book and not for use by others outside the organization. For example, an organization that purchased the book to help its staff or board make plans relevant to the topic of this book may make copies of material from the book to distribute to others in the organization as they plan.
 
For permission to make multiple copies outside of the permission granted here—for example, for training, for use in a compilation of materials, for public presentation, or to otherwise distribute portions of the book to organizations and individuals that did not purchase the book—please visit the publisher’s web site, www.FieldstoneAlliance.org/permissions .
 
Aside from the limited permission granted here, all other rights not expressly granted here are reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 
Embracing cultural competency: a roadmap for nonprofit capacity builders
p. cm.
“Lead author: Patricia St.Onge; contributing authors: Beth Applegate... [et al.]”—P. .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
9781618589279
1. Nonprofit organizations—Management.
2. Intercultural communication.
3. Communication in management. 4. Diversity in the workplace—Management. I. St.Onge, Patricia, 1953–II. Applegate, Beth, 1961–III. Fieldstone Alliance.
HD62.6.C85 2009
658’.048—dc22
2008034010
This work is dedicated to my life and work partner, Wilson Riles, and to our daughters and grandchildren who make the work have meaning. I also dedicate it to Frank J. Omowale Satterwhite, who showed me the way, and Diana Marie Lee, Dahnesh Medora, Brigette Rouson, and all those who journey with me.
—Patricia St.Onge
About the Authors
Beth Applegate is the principal of Applegate Consulting Group (ACG), an organization development (OD) practice that assists national and international nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and socially responsible for-profit corporations with developing human and organizational capacity and building a more just and equitable society.
 
Using systems theory and a well-established action research model, ACG helps diverse organizations adapt to changing environments, identify priorities, strengthen leadership, and facilitate continuous learning. Working collaboratively with each client, ACG employs a series of planned change processes that strengthen organizational effectiveness and increase capabilities. ACG’s work is inextricably linked to advancing democratic processes and humanistic values. Through shared responsibility and effort with each client, ACG Develops leaders who are intentional, proactive, and clear about their visions Supports the development of diverse workplace cultures where all employees feel invested and valued Helps individuals understand the significance, power, and importance of their contributions Clarifies strategic direction and facilitates effective collaboration Supports the development of sustainable organizations that are socially responsible
Beth Applegate can be reached at Beth @ applegateonline.com .
 
Vicki Asakura is a third-generation Japanese American who grew up in the ethnically diverse Central Area of Seattle. Her life experiences have had a strong influence on her passion for racial justice and capacity-building work in communities of color and refugees and immigrants. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington, she started her professional career in a newly formed community-based organization providing employment services for Asian Americans in the Seattle area. Through this job she became a community advocate for programs and funding in support of English as a second language (ESL) and other bilingual services for the growing immigrant and refugee communities.
 
After seventeen years at the Seattle-King County Private Industry Council, where she managed federal and state-funded grants providing employment and training services for refugees, Asakura joined the newly created Nonprofit Assistance Center (NAC) in 2000, where she currently serves as executive director. Under her leadership, NAC has created new models for effective and culturally competent capacity building and leadership development for organizations and leaders based in low-income, refugee, immigrant communities and in communities of color and has implemented new strategies as part of a race and public policy agenda.
 
Asakura chairs the Alliance for Nonprofit Management Cultural Competency Initiative and the United Way of King County Employment Impact Council. She is past chair of the King County Refugee Planning Committee, which advocates on local and state refugee issues, and is a member of the Minority Executive Directors’ Coalition of King County (based in Seattle) and the Asian Pacific Directors’ Coalition. She is also involved in various community-building efforts, including Making Connections, an initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and BuRSST for Prosperity, an initiative of the Northwest Area Foundation.
 
Monika K. Moss, president of MKM Management Consulting, has worked as a master mapper and business consultant for twenty years. She has dedicated her talents to helping organizations and individuals create powerful road-maps to their vision. As founder of MKM Management Consulting ( www.mkmmanagement.com ), Moss is committed to partnering with others to make a difference by supporting the transformation of individuals and organizations. A scholar and practitioner, Moss was published in the International Association of Facilitators’ Group Facilitation: A Research and Application Journal (Spring 2004) and wrote the book Life Mapping: A Process of Self-Discovery and Path Finding (Keys for Life Publishing, 2007).
 
Moss is a regular presenter and trainer at regional and national conferences on issues of effective meetings, facilitative leadership, strategic planning, Gestalt organizational systems development theory, nonprofit management, cultural competency, and diversity. She is on the faculty of the Gestalt Organizational Systems Development Center and a partner with the Center for Nonprofit Policy and Practice at Cleveland State University’s Maxine Levine College of Urban Affairs. Moss has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University and Columbia University, respectively. She is a 2007 graduate of Leadership Cleveland, a member of the National Black MBA Association, OD Connection, and the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. She is involved with numerous community, business, and civic groups.
 
Brigette Rouson brings more than twenty years of experience as a consultant, public policy attorney, grant maker, board member, and scholar-activist. Her leadership signature is advancing social transformation through attention to cultural identity. She is senior consulta