This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of the California Brief Multicultural Competence Scale (CBMCS) and training as a tool to increase cultural competency skills. The interest of this was to determine if the training brought about a change in empathy or effectively increased knowledge about the importance of culture.

No description available.

This study explores the complex issues in culturally sensitive social services in the context of ethnic polities. We examine the reasons why the social service sector fails to provide equitable services to minorities. We explore the concept of ethnic match, services delivered by ethnic personnel, in an ethnic agency and using ethnic practice, as an attainable solution to the problems, by comparing with a Chinese and a Jewish ethno-specific family service agency in Montreal. The ways they deliver sensitive services to communities members and the challenges they face are documented. The dynamic of the ethnic polities in which these two agencies operate is also examined. We argue the formation and functioning of these agencies are shaped by a set of internal factors (within the communities) and external factors (in Quebec society). Culture plays a vital role in service delivery and help seeking, and also in the organization of these ethnic communities. Policy implications are discussed, and future research is suggested.

The purpose of this study was to measure the social workers' knowledge, awareness, sensitivity, and ability to serve the population of color.

This study examined the ethnic makeup of individuals who seek services from San Bernardino County, Department of Behavioral Health, Mentally Ill Homeless program.

The thesis is a qualitative study from critical theory perspectives to enhance understanding of how systemically mainstream organizations marginalize social work practice with ethno-racial minorities. It also explores strategic implications for systemic change based on field research findings. Ten social workers from Edmonton – the provincial capital city of Alberta, Canada - participated in investigative dialogues for the thesis field research. These research participants’ workplace stories lend themselves to explore three questions: what does marginalization of practice with ethno-racial minorities look like in mainstream organizational settings; what is there to understand about it as a systemic issue and what the research findings imply for change strategies. A critical analysis of dialogic data thematically identifies everyday work issues that describe how practice with ethno-racial minorities is kept at the operational and service-delivery fringe of individual workplaces. These thematic findings point to broader issues of the mainstream human service organization sector. These broader issues further highlight how the practice marginalization of concern in this thesis is a systemically constructed issue. These broader issues are mainstream benevolence, social work as an employment regime, multicultural service delivery as a thrill and clientization of ethno-racial minorities. In consideration of these sector-wide issues, implied change strategies reveal three thematic directions for systemic transformational change: (i) continued dialoguing involving concerned social workers and ethno-racial minority community leaders, (ii) community social work to build and foster coalitionary activist work and organizations, and (iii) participatory research involving a community sharing concern of the practice marginalization issue so as to build a strong knowledge-base to support and empower broad-base activist endeavour to effect change about mainstream human service organizations. / Social Work / D. Phil. (Social Work)

The thesis is a qualitative study from critical theory perspectives to enhance understanding of how systemically mainstream organizations marginalize social work practice with ethno-racial minorities. It also explores strategic implications for systemic change based on field research findings. Ten social workers from Edmonton – the provincial capital city of Alberta, Canada - participated in investigative dialogues for the thesis field research. These research participants’ workplace stories lend themselves to explore three questions: what does marginalization of practice with ethno-racial minorities look like in mainstream organizational settings; what is there to understand about it as a systemic issue and what the research findings imply for change strategies. A critical analysis of dialogic data thematically identifies everyday work issues that describe how practice with ethno-racial minorities is kept at the operational and service-delivery fringe of individual workplaces. These thematic findings point to broader issues of the mainstream human service organization sector. These broader issues further highlight how the practice marginalization of concern in this thesis is a systemically constructed issue. These broader issues are mainstream benevolence, social work as an employment regime, multicultural service delivery as a thrill and clientization of ethno-racial minorities. In consideration of these sector-wide issues, implied change strategies reveal three thematic directions for systemic transformational change: (i) continued dialoguing involving concerned social workers and ethno-racial minority community leaders, (ii) community social work to build and foster coalitionary activist work and organizations, and (iii) participatory research involving a community sharing concern of the practice marginalization issue so as to build a strong knowledge-base to support and empower broad-base activist endeavour to effect change about mainstream human service organizations. / Social Work / D. Phil. (Social Work)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study explored the lived experiences of family case managers who routinely work with families who are culturally different from themselves. The purpose was to understand and interpret the meaning of culture and cultural difference as it relates to the engagement process with families. The research also sought to understand whether cultural insensitivity or bias may contribute to the overrepresentation of children of color in the child welfare system. The author conducted 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with graduates of a large, research-intensive Midwestern university’s Title-IV-E Social Work Program, who also were employed as family case managers in public child welfare. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and the analytic process of the hermeneutic circle. Results suggest the concept of culture is a complex term that encompasses many characteristics and a number of dimensions. In addition, four themes were identified as underlying the engagement process with culturally different families. These themes routinely overlapped, and family case managers often had to attend to each of the thematic areas simultaneously. At nearly every step in the engagement process, family case managers modulated their interactions in order to find balance and stability in their relationship with the family. Finally, poverty was revealed to be the most salient cultural difference in working with families involved in the child welfare system. These results have important implications for social work education, child welfare practice, and research on the overrepresentation of children of color in the child welfare system.