Racial Equity for Culturally Specific Organizations: An Assets-Based Evidentiary Assessment

Abstract

Culturally specific organizations have been missing out on the racial equity and cultural responsiveness initiatives that have been prominent in nonprofits and government, both due to the absence of relevant assessment tools, as well as discourses within these initiatives which have overlooked the sector of culturally specific organizations and subsequently provided a competitive advantage to culturally responsive organizations. This paper reports on the development of a culturally specific organizational assessment, and the results of a four-site pilot study of the tool. The assessment tool is based on the results of a Delphi and Consumer Voice two-part study into the assets of culturally specific organizations and their valuation by clients. Developed with the input of four organizations serving a range of communities of color, we have confirmed that the Successful Families Tool achieves its objectives (centering primarily on creating actionable insights and quality improvement plans). Additional benefits emerged from the pilot’s participants: that an evidence-base for the organization’s assets is initiated, that organization-wide identity is strengthened, that staff have been energized by relevant equity dialogues and relationship deepening, and that motivation for research and evaluation that captures the fullness of the organization’s impacts be undertaken. A sampling of tool questions and standards is included, along with listing of its ten domains.

Characterizing Organizational Health Equity Capacity Assessments for Public Health Organizations: A Scoping Review

“…Six OCAs were intended for any public health organization. 30,33 ,35,38,46 Three OCAs were intended for LHDs 32,36,44 ; 3 for any type of public health department but with implementation information only at the county level 31,40,41 ; 1 for state health departments 37 ; 2 for faith-based organizations, specifically churches 39,45 ; 1 for the US Department of Veterans Affairs service networks 43 ; and 1 for public health coalitions. 42…”

“…We could not identify capacity assessment results or implementation information for the following OCAs: the Health Department Self-Assessment Questions, 41 the Equity and Empowerment Lens, 31 the Protocol for Culturally Responsive Organizations, 38 the Learning and Action Tool for Public Health Organizations, 37 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Building Organizational Capacity to Advance Health Equity self-assessment module, 34 and the Organizational Health Equity Checklist. 46…”

Need for Widely Applicable Cultural Competencies in the Healthcare of Humans and Animals

“…Cultural competence has been defined many times [18], and many instruments have been designed to measure it [19]. However, the use of the term and any attempts to operationalise it have been problematic because, as Kleinman and Benson [20] have emphasised, culture has been misused as a synonym with ethnicity and has been assumed to be a fixed set of skills in which healthcare professionals can be trained to the extent that they would develop expertise.…”