Cultural and Linguistic Competency Initiative
Thanks to a grant awarded by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, the Tampa Bay Healthcare Collaborative expanded the Cultural & Linguistic Competency Initiative (CLCI), which utilizes a learning collaborative model to assist health and human service organizations in providing more effective care to racially, ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse groups and reduce health disparities based on such factors.
The CLCI is a unique project that aims to increase the cultural and linguistic competency of stakeholders (i.e. staff, board members, volunteers, etc.) of participating organizations through an active learning, assessment, and action planning process. Participating organizations select a core planning team of individuals from multiple levels of the organization who work together over a 12-month period towards organizational cultural change.
The teams receive training, information, resources, and technical assistance to address and increase cultural and linguistic competency within their organizations to achieve health equity. This means each organization will be able to better serve those they are committed to serving because they will have more tools and resources to make meaningful cross-cultural connections. Participating organizations have the chance to engage in difficult conversations, examine biases, and challenge assumptions. These elements are the levers for culture transformation in an organization that will lead to improved care for diverse clients.
Each participating organization and TBHC will also increase community awareness of health disparities and strengthen the abilities and competencies of nonprofit staff and community members by hosting and facilitating viewings of the documentary Unnatural Causes…is Inequality Making Us Sick? Ultimately engaging and supporting the community to implement activities to create and sustain health equity.
The following organizations participated in Cohort 1 which concluded in September 2017:
- Bon Secours Health System
- Empath Health
- Vincent House
- St. Petersburg Free Clinic
- Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County
If you would like additional information or have any questions, contact Carrie Hepburn, Executive Director, Tampa Bay Healthcare Collaborative via email at [email protected] or phone (727) 812-4952.