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Capacity Building and Cultural Competence When Working with Minority Populations

About the Webcast

The Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research (CBMDR) attempts to increase the capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) like Centers for Independent Living and other agencies) and State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (VR) to document the impact of their programs and develop culturally competent services. The CBMDR utilizes participatory research methodologies to promote organizational change. The Center’s mission is to promote positive rehabilitation outcomes for minority individuals with disabilities at the national level. Center staff is conducting participatory research and demonstration projects in collaboration with interested agencies, engaging in active dissemination efforts, and providing state-of-the art training and technical assistance on cultural competence to professionals and researchers in the field.

This presentation will include two parts. The first part will summarize the Capacity Building activities being conducted by center staff. The Center utilizes a participatory program evaluation model which actively involves consumers and agency staff in the process of identifying service needs, selecting program goals, developing a logic model for success, and implementing and evaluating change efforts to address critical needs and improve services. From this perspective, participating agencies develop their capacity for effectively using consumer input and program data to identify research questions and methods to improve services. We will summarize our progress to date.

The second part of the presentation will describe our conceptual framework for cultural competence training, review the factors that determine cultural diversity, and summarize our training activities in this area to date. Cultural diversity is constantly challenging our ability to outreach and effectively involve minority individuals with disabilities in our research projects and/or services. We will discuss some of the strategies that appear to be beneficial in this area.