Assignment:
Overview
You are an employee at Spokes of Hope Worldwide (SoHW), a nonprofit organization that seeks to broaden access to education by donating bicycles to students who need them. Recently, the Society for New Americans (SNA) approached your organization with a proposal to set up a community partnership. SNA is a community nonprofit organization that assists new immigrants and resettled refugees with their transition to life in the United States. Part of SNA's mission is to increase access to education within the different cultural communities it serves. SNA is interested in working with SoHW to provide bicycles to these same communities. Its employees are excited by SoHW's long history of international cross-cultural partnerships, and they are hoping to hear a bit more about how your employees would approach this new partnership from a culturally competent perspective. They have expressed concerns about misunderstandings because their employees and clients come from all over the world. It will be necessary to train employees at SoHW and demonstrate cultural competence to SNA. Greg Gears, your supervisor, has tasked you with leading this effort. This will require you to develop a training handout for SoHW employees, complete and evaluate reflection activities, and speak to employees at SoHW and the SNA board of directors.
Directions
Now that you have done this handout and learned about cultural competency, it will help you to spend some time reflecting on your own understandings of culture. You found two helpful resources in the SoHW office: Cultural Autobiography Guide and Learning About Others Worksheet. Take some time to complete the Cultural Autobiography Guide and Learning About Others Worksheet while reflecting on your experiences with different cultures.
While you are reflecting, you notice an email from Greg. He was pleased with your handout, and would like to begin working with the staff. His email, included in the Project Resources, contains further instructions about preparing a workshop that will get employees at SoHW thinking more deeply about their own cultures before approaching new situations. Use your personal reflections to help you plan the workshop, but you won't be sharing any personal, sensitive information with Greg as that is not legally acceptable for your boss to request.
Demonstrate Cultural Competence, Personal Reflections
Greg's Email
Thank you again for creating that handout! In order to share this information with our employees and the SNA board, I want you to put together a 1-page outline for what you'll say during a workshop on cultural competency. Don't worry about delivery yet, just focus on the content. Use the material from your handout to create an outline that explains
? cultural competency and its importance
? cross cultural relationships
? why it helps to reflect on one's own experiences
? what questions help someone learn about the cultures of others
? the effects of biases and how to remain aware of them
? how these considerations and this knowledge will help the upcoming partnership run smoothly Send the outline back to me in an email as soon as you are done. The people over at SNA are very excited about this partnership, and you are playing a key role in reassuring them that our employees are ready for this opportunity.