Provides guidance to health and human service organizations in their efforts to enhance programs for culturally and linguistically diverse populations. According to the National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC), based at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., cultural competence requires organizations and their personnel to have the capacity to value diversity, conduct self-assessment, manage the dynamics of difference, acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and adapt to the diversity and cultural contexts of the individuals and communities served. The guidelines outline: (1) the benefits of self-assessment, which include enabling organizations to gauge the degree to which they are addressing the needs of and preferences of culturally and linguistically diverse groups and to increase access to and use of services; (2) the fundamental purposes of self-assessment, which include identifying strengths at all levels of an organization, conducting the self-assessment process in a nonjudgmental environment, and using the results to enhance and build capacity; and (3) useful steps for planning and implementing self-assessment, which include cultivating leadership, getting “buy-in,” assuring community collaboration and partnerships, structuring support for the process, allocating personnel and fiscal resources, managing logistics, analyzing and disseminating data, and developing a strategic plan to build on strengths and achieve future goals.
