What is Cultural Competency

First things first: Lets start off with a definition of culture: Culture is a set of structures and institutions, values, and traditions transmitted across generations in a certain time and place. So, what’s integral to American cultural? Some might say: A belief in basic equality and justice. Others might suggest the idea of Rugged Individualism. What about, “It’s as American as baseball and apple-pie?”

But America is changing, and more traditional cultural expressions are starting to seem quaint, at best, and prejudiced at worst. As demographics change, so too does culture. Take food for example; food is one of the strongest cultural expressions. The change in food in America signals a larger, more powerful shift toward diversity. Within three blocks of my house, I can get great Peruvian, Mexican, Chinese, Italian, and Thai food. If I prefer, I have a diner close by where I can get “traditional” American food. In the UK, where I grew up, Fish and Chips were the ultimate manifestation of English culture (followed by the Queen maybe). A couple of years ago, fish and chips were knocked off their perch by Chicken Masala. Traditionally Indian food is now the most popular food in England (which validates my belief that the British Empire spread so far because they were looking for a good meal).

So, cultural competency is understanding cultures, and being able to serve clients and customers from many cultures. If you are going to really serve a cultural group with any degree of competence, you have to understand the culture. Here’s an example: Over the past couple of years, a small population of Travelers/Roma people have moved into a town near me. A couple of social service groups have tried to provide services to the group, and were rebuffed every time. A women’s group failed. An after school group for kids failed. Why? Because the agencies didn’t know Traveler communities are incredibly patriarchal and clannish. Women are expected to work all day keeping the house clean. The after-school group didn’t work because Traveler communities don’t value education—not a judgment, a fact. Most girls leave school at 14 or 15 to help keep house, and most are married by the time they are 16. At 15 or 16, young men are expected to join their dads doing manual labor or other blue collar trades.

It’s easy for a group of college educated social workers to undervalue a rigid patriarchal culture that places little to no value on education and expects girls to be married by 16; but if you don’t understand cultural manifestations you’ll never be successful in providing services. You can’t change the culture of your clients or customers, you have to adapt your services to the cultures you serve.

For those of you who are thinking, “that’s easy for him to say, but we serve hundreds of cultural groups”—no you don’t. Or at least a large majority of you don’t. Most agencies serve 3-4 cultural groups, some less. Hospitals and colleges really do deal with almost every cultural group.

So, how can you become culturally competent? Read the other blogs in this series!