INFORM ME: CULTURALLY COMPETENT COALITIONS

Why Diversity Matters
We said at the outset of this lesson that diversity in tobacco control means that a coalition needs to be truly representative of the community served, in terms of race, ethnicity, age, gender, income, education, sexual orientation, mental and physical ability/disability, geographic location and other differentiators. Our Build a Coalition (link to page) lesson explores methods of creating diverse coalitions.

What is Cultural Competence?
Culture is the shared traditions, beliefs, customs, history, folklore and institutions of a group of people. Being culturally competent means that you and/or your organization is sensitive to and responsive to the interests and needs of a group of people who have particular cultural traits that may be different from yours. You may not fully understand the basis of certain cultural traits, behaviors or customs, but being open and non-judgmental about those customs, which are different from yours and knowing how to effectively work in diverse communities are an important indicators of cultural competence. An advanced sign of cultural competence is the total integration of the ideas and approaches that reflect the customs of priority populations.

• Cultural knowledge: Knowing about a culture.
• Cultural awareness: Understanding other groups.
• Cultural sensitivity: Knowing differences exist, while not assigning values.
• Cultural competence: Knowing how to effectively work in diverse communities or with diverse sub-groups.
• Cultural blindness: Not recognizing how cultural norms may influence tobacco use
• Cultural incapacity: Language barriers
• Cultural destructiveness: Not acknowledging the importance of tobacco in American Indian religious ceremonies can be culturally destructive.

Why is Cultural Competence Important?
Working towards cultural competence is important because it increases the ability of tobacco programs to involve groups of people with the greatest disparities in the identifying solutions and strategies. Involving groups of people with the greatest disparities will bring credibility to the program’s efforts through:

• Increased respect
• Increased creativity
• Decreased unwanted surprises
• Increased participation from target populations
• Increased trust and cooperation
• Decreased fear of mistakes and conflict
• Promotion of inclusion and equality – capacity building
• Increased chances of eliminating disparities in health outcomes.

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