This document provides guidance on cultural competency. It defines cultural competency as the ability to interact effectively and respectfully with people from different cultures. There are four components of cultural competency: awareness of one's own cultural worldview, attitude towards cultural differences, knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and cross-cultural skills. It emphasizes that everyone has biases and cultural influences that should be acknowledged. It provides self-assessment questions to help individuals understand their own cultural identities and worldviews. It also discusses important concepts like ethnocentrism and the stages of developing a positive attitude towards cultural differences. Finally, it provides overviews of the cultures of communities that have been resettled in Louisville to build knowledge of

1. What is it and how do I utilize it?
CULTURAL
COMPETENCY

2. Guidelines
•Training only works if you are honest with yourself
and those around you!
•EVERYONE has prejudices
•Please respect the opinions and truth of those in the
room, no matter how “different”
•Please feel free to express yourself freely without
judgment, as this is the ONLY way to understand your
truth (culture) and comprehend the truths (cultures)
of those in your life

3. What is Cultural Competency?
•Ability to interact effectively and respectfully
with people of different cultures and socio-
economic backgrounds
•4 Components
•1) Awareness of your own cultural worldview
•2) Attitude towards cultural differences
•3) Knowledge of different cultural practices and
worldviews
•4) Cross-cultural skills

4. Awareness of your own cultural worldview
• 5 Parts
• Cultural Self-Assessment
• What’s Your Worldview?
• Appreciating Your Own Multiple Identities
• Acknowledging Assumptions and Biases
• Accepting Responsibility and Tolerating Ambiguity

5. Cultural Self Assessment
• Think of yourself as a cultural being whose life has been influenced by various historical, social, political, economic, and
geographical circumstances
• Where were you born?
• When were you born?
• Where did you grow up?
• Where did your parent grow up?
• Where did your grandparents grow up?
• Where did your great grandparents grow up?
• What is your earliest memory as a family?
• What is your earliest school memory?
• As a family, what events did you celebrate?
• Have you traveled or moved as a child?
• Have you traveled or moved as an adult?
• Recall an international event that happened before you turned 18.
• Who was involved?
• What was the event?
• Where did it happen?
• How did it happen?
• Why did it happen?
• Recall an event that happened in the country where you born, before you turned 18.
• What is your earliest recollection as a member of a group?
• What was your first job?
• As an adult, what events or holidays do you currently celebrate?

6. What is your worldview?
• Learned through socialization, from childhood to adulthood, and
constantly reinforced by the culture in which you live
• Taken-for-granted view of “the way things are”; unquestionable and
invisible
• Example: “I am the captain of my soul” vs. “God will provide”
• Someone blind to their own culture cannot see the differences in value
between cultures; leads to dehumanizing others with different values
Aspects of Worldview What is your worldview?
Time
Space between you and the
next person
Relationships
Technology
Religion or spirituality
Honesty

7. Appreciating your own Multiple Identities
• EVERYONE lives and identifies with multiple identities; most claim
different identities related to gender, age, religion, ethnicity,
socioeconomic status, profession, national original, educational
level
• When working with clients from other cultures, examine the
differences and similarities between you and the client
• By recognizing multiple identities, you’re less likely to stereotype
others based on minimal information about another person’s
historical, social, and cultural backgrounds
• “I Am Exercise”

8. Acknowledging Assumptions and Biases
• Social workers are expected to be aware of their own cultural
identifications in order to control their personal biases that could
interfere in their relationship with a client; involves examining one’s own
culture AND perceptions and assumptions about client’s culture
• Through self-reflective assessment of personal values, attitudes, and
assumptions about other cultures, and articulating them, you can gain the
ability to sort out or “bracket” influences of your own cultural
background to provide respectful and unbiased help
• Self Assessment
• What racial group do you identify with?
• What ethnic group(s) do you identify with?
• What is your earliest memory of belonging in a group (other than your family)?
• What socioeconomic class do you identify with?
• What is your earliest memory of being excluded from a group?
• What is your earliest memory of excluding someone from a group?

9. Accepting Responsibility and Tolerating
Ambiguity
• Ethnocentrism = tendency to think that your ways of thinking, acting, and believing are the only
right, proper, and natural ways and that beliefs, values and practices that differ from yours are
wrong
• Unexplored assumptions about our biases and preconceived ideas about others blind us to our
ethnocentric behaviors—this deters us from relationship-building
• Indicate the degree to which you agree with the following:
• People are responsible for their own actions
• The outcome of events is beyond our control
• It is dishonest to give vague and tentative answers
• It is best to avoid direct and honest answers in order not to hurt or embarrass someone
• Intelligent, efficient people use time wisely and are always punctual
• Being punctual to work or meetings is not as important as spending time with family or close friends
• Stoicism is the appropriate way to grieve
• Loudly crying and moaning is the appropriate way to grieve
• The best way to gain information is to ask direct questions
• It is rude and intrusive to ask direct questions
• It is proper to call people by their first names to show that you are friendly
• It is disrespectful to call people by their first names unless they give you permission to do so
• It is rude not to look at a person who is speaking to you
• It is rude to engage in direct eye contact with persons of higher status

10. Attitude Towards Cultural Differences
• 6 Stages of attitude
• ETHNOCENTRISM
• Stage 1: Denial  don’t really believe in cultural differences; they think people
who are behaving differently don’t know any better
• Stage 2: Defense  have had an indication that their value system may not be
absolute and they’re unhappy about it; believe in cultural difference and have
accepted the reality of it, but they are deeply threatened by it and believe that
other cultures are inferior
• Stage 3: Minimization  still threated by difference, but they don’t think those
who are different are inferior/misguided/unfortunate; believe that differences are
real but not especially deep or significant, that people are still more similar than
dissimilar

11. Attitudes Toward Cultural Difference Contd
• ETHNORELATIVISM
• Stage 4: Acceptance  accept differences as being deep and legitimate; they
know other people are genuinely different from them and accept the inevitability
of other value systems and behavioral norms
• Stages 5 & 6: Adaptation and Integration  behavior as well as attitudes change;
have gone from being neutral about difference to being positive

12. Important Immigration Terms
• Alien  Any person not a citizen or national of the United States
• Asylee  An alien in the US who is found to be unable or unwilling to
return to his or her country of nationality, or to seek the protection of
that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution
• Persecution must be based on the alien’s race, religion, nationality,
membership in a particular social group, or political opinion
• Border Crosser  An alien resident of the United States reentering the
country after an absence of less than 6 months in Canada or Mexico
• Migrant  A person who leaves his/her country of origin to seek
residence in another country
• Parolee  An alien, appearing to be inadmissible to the inspecting officer,
allowed into the US for urgent humanitarian reasons or when that alien’s
entry is determined to be for significant public benefit
• Refugee  Any person who is outside his or her country of nationality
who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of
persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution

13. Knowledge of Different Cultures and Worldviews
• Louisville has resettled individuals from the following countries in
the past quarter:
• Afghanistan
• Bhutan
• Burma
• Cuba
• DR Congo
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Iraq
• Pakistan
• Somalia
• Sudan
• We will be resettling Syrians in the coming year

14. Important to Keep in Mind
• CULTURAL NORMS ARE RELATIVE; GET TO KNOW A PERSON
INDIVIDUALLY AND TRY NOT TO ASSUME THAT THE GENERAL
EXPERIENCE IS THEIR EXPERIENCE
• Remember that each individual has a unique personal history, belief
system, communication style and health status; what may be true
about some or most individuals from a particular region or country
may not be true of all individuals from that region or country
• People from rural areas may have been living a more traditional lifestyle
than people who have emigrated to the U.S. from urban areas
• Economic status and education can vary greatly among people from the
same country
• NO STEREOTYPING
• TRUST IS MOST IMPORTANT

15. Sub-Saharan Africans
• Many Africans conduct commercial, political, and educational
activities in English, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, and Arabic
• Most speak two or three native languages, as well as one or more
European languages
• Family is broadly defined and may encompass people from the
same village of origin, friends, and distant blood relatives; family
ties may imply extensive monetary obligations
• Some women still practice female circumcision, but its prevalence is
fading
• Louisville has resettled refugees in the past year from: Congo
(Democratic Republic), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia

16. Hispanics/Latinos
• Largest minority group in the US; covers an area of more than 40
countries
• Maintaining eye contact is valued
• Friendly physical contact, such as touching the shoulder or upper
arm, is common
• Friendliness and respect are HIGHLY valued
• Education, degrees, and titles are esteemed
• Workers in the US may send money back home to support family
members (remittances)
• Louisville resettles Cubans/Haitians (largest resettled group by
sheer numbers); Louisville has the third largest Cuban population in
the country after Miami, FL and Dallas, TX

17. Western Asia/Middle East
• Afghanistan has 19 ethnically distinct groups, and Iraq has more than 5; each group has
its own language
• Most people from this region do not eat pork products
• Concern for family pride and honor may be very high
• Many people from this region do not like to be touched on the head
• Many people use their left hand for toilet hygiene, and thus avoid using the left hand
to touch another person or to touch food
• In some countries, women may be strictly secluded from men and may have little
contact outside of the home
• Devout Muslims (the majority religion in this region) pray as many as five times a day,
starting before sunrise and ending at night; they also abstain from alcohol
• Fasting is required of devout Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, with no food
or drink consumed between sunrise and sunset; the ill are exempt, but fasting may
extend to medications, including injections, during this important holy period
• Devout Muslims or those from rural areas may prefer to speak or deal with an
individuals of the same sex
• Many from this region are wary of others from the same region
• Louisville has resettled refugees in the past year from: Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan and
Pakistan; in 2015 we will begin resettling Syrian refugees

18. South Asian
• Younger generations are taught to venerate older generations; rarely sit
at a higher level than their elders or pass in front of them unless
unavoidable
• Parents are believed to be solely responsible for their children’s behavior
• It is considered rude to touch a person’s head, because it is the “highest”
point of the body; it is considered taboo to touch another’s feet because
the feet are considered the lowest
• In older generations, shoes are taken off before entering homes
• Funerals last a week, in which family members are not permitted to work
• Men and women work together in the home as partners, both taking on
domestic and vocational work
• Louisville has resettled refugees in the past year from: Bhutan, Burma

19. Cross-Cultural Skills
• Enjoy working with diverse populations
• Outgoing individual, personable, able to develop close relationships
quickly
• Able to adjust to and fit into different situations
• Maintain composure under close public scrutiny and criticism
• Good listening, clarifying, questioning and responding skills
• Tolerant, curious and appreciative of different work patterns
• Able to respond quickly to changing circumstances
• Maintain composure in stressful situations or when under pressure

20. Questions?