Guidance

TASK 3: Increase Capacity Through Cultural Competence

To increase the cultural competence of your organization or coalition, you must consider whether your current practices and your written guidelines or policies reflect a culturally competent perspective.

Here are some questions for assessing your coalition’s capacity—its strengths, weaknesses, and needs—in this area:30

  • Membership: How well does your group reflect the communities you serve? Should you add members? Should you work to forge partnerships with organizations that have stronger capacity for working with particular groups?
  • Resources: Do your members or partners need additional training or resources in order to serve all parts of your community equitably? For example, do you need to build capacity to translate program materials into another language?
  • Barriers: What is getting in your group’s way as you work to connect with and serve diverse communities? Avoid rehashing past mistakes, but don’t shy away from looking at problems that exist, and be willing to change.
  • Leadership: Has your group publicly endorsed cultural competence and inclusivity? Does it need more leadership in this area, perhaps from a partner with more expertise?
Tool
MOAPC Planning Tool