Web Sites by Topic 

Diversity and Cultural Competence

As America in general, and New Jersey in particular, become increasingly multicultural and multilingual, school specialists are faced with the challenge to broaden their scope of assistance, counseling, services to include cultural sensitivity for a wide variety of diverse students.

Advocates for Youth provides a Youth of Color site to address the disproportionate rates of health and sexual health issues among these youth and plan culturally appropriate interventions to meet their needs (http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/yoc.htm).

New Jersey Statewide Network for Cultural Competence (NJSNCC) is a collaborative effort of community organizations in New Jersey to strengthen culturally competent services for people with diverse needs, and to facilitate access to these services by individuals, families, and professionals. It offers a search engine to identify agencies and/or individuals in New Jersey who have knowledge and skills for people with diverse needs and links to national resources on a variety of areas. Although the site is not directly connected to violence or trauma, it should be useful if cultural, ethnic, and/or linguistic issues are involved (http://www.nj.gov/njsncc/).

National Center for Cultural Competence, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities focuses on topics of interest to mental health and public health specialists to promote cultural awareness and sensitivity, including curriculum enhancement modules.  Spanish language resources are offered (http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/nccc).

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Minority Outreach Program, increases awareness about problems associated with missing and exploited African American and Latino children (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/ServiceServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=1561).

Committee for Children, International Programs offers culturally appropriate programs for children and educators worldwide about bullying prevention, appropriate touch, and violence prevention.  Multilingual resources are available (www.cfchildren.org/support).

Maternal and Child Health Training Network offers the Cross Cultural Health Care Case Studies program. This interactive self-study program consists of a series of tutorials in cultural competence, aimed at familiarizing professionals (mostly health care workers but other professions may benefit) with common issues that arise while working with people of diverse cultures. Each tutorial consists of a home page to introduce the topics and define concepts, a case study to illustrate the topic, a multimedia lecture about the topic, and a series of learning activities to engage the learner in applying the concepts in case story. Case stories illustrate emotional and cultural factors that affect non-adherence; interpreter services and limited English language proficiency issues; folk health; and cultural and religious factors that affect decision-making (http://ppc.mchtraining.net/)