Creating
a plan
“Ideas and practices that promote inequality among races reflect cultural bias, not science or justice. Racial stratification and racism have economic and political determinants”
(Kottak and Kozaitis, 2002, p. 88).
Many existing sources could
offer direction to the three Senior Citizen Centers in creating a plan to manage diversity. One such source is the “Cultural
Competency Curriculum” that was specifically created for Utah’s court system by the Utah Multi-Cultural Legal
Center with input from the Utah Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Legal System. Most of the actual development
was done by James Yapias, the Curriculum Researcher/Developer and the Utah Multi-Agency Cultural Competency Curriculum (UMACC)
Training Coordinator. This workbook has a copy right that requires written permission from the Utah Administrative Office
of The Courts which is located on 4th South and State Street
in Salt Lake City. It comprises eight hours of in-class training
and covers a great many areas. Similar to the Carr-Ruffino text (2003), it requires participants to understand their own ethnicity
to help them understand that of minority populations. One of the strengths of this document is its emphasis on communication
between people of different ethnicities, not only in spoken or written words, but also in body language. “Further, we
need to recognize that multicultural relationships are not limited to those between Black and White, Asian and White, or Hispanic
and White. Multiculturalism speaks to the need to discuss interethnic relations as well, including Asian-Black, Black-Hispanic,
Hispanic-American Indian, and others” (Herlihy and Corey, 1996, p. 196).
The Davis County Aging Services could provide a diversity training plan for Senior
Citizen Center site managers to help in the proper management of staff, volunteers, and in helping patrons embrace multiculturalism
at the three Senior Citizen Centers. This training should be at least yearly and reward those who work towards the common
goals. Among those goals could be:
1- Aim for a diverse board [at each of the Centers and in the County
Aging
Advisory Board].
2- Use diversity specialists [such as speakers from the minority community].
3- Use community outreach. Connect with minority and women’s organizations in the community. Establish
a continuing dialogue for making job referrals, posting job openings, making charitable contributions, and similar activities
(Carr-Ruffino, 2003, p. 508).
Needing to Be Needed
MC [multiculturalism] promotes
the practice of cultural and ethnic traditions. “A multicultural society socializes individuals not only into the dominant
(national) culture but also into an ethnic culture” (Kottak and Kozaitis, 2002, p. 72).
Older minority members may resist the invitation to attend the Senior Citizen
Centers for a number of reasons, including being fearful of anything related to the government. However, they can be invited
not only to attend, but also to volunteer at the Centers. Halstead and Lind (2002) suggest that “the best policy for
nurturing new voluntary institutions is often to let them adapt on their own, with minimal outside intervention” (p.
97). Accordingly, each Center should create its own plan of inclusion for helping the minority members to feel needed and
welcome. Halstead and Lind further suggest that having a better mix of volunteers at the Centers could help strengthen the
community “through indirect methods such as removing or reducing the most serious social divisions in our community,
while relying on the resilience, entrepreneurism, and good will of Americans to do the rest” (p. 98). Morrow-Howell, Hinterlong, Rozario, and Tang (2003) report on another reason for increased volunteering
among all ethnicities of older Americans. They found that older volunteers who give a relatively high number of hours report
higher levels of well-being than those who do not (p. S137). Brown, Consedine and Magai (2005) found a modest relationship
between altruism and wellness in older individuals. They claim that people received the health benefit from altruism whether
they gave service to kin or non-kin (p. 150).
Beyond the requirements of federal law, some positive outcomes have been shown
when diversity is encouraged in public settings. For an example, Rayle and Myers (2004) found that the acknowledgement of
student’s healthy ethnic identities on all levels promoted better success and retention (p. 89).
Multicultural Sensitivity
Senior Citizen Center
staff members need to become more culturally of their own ethnicity, that of their coworkers and volunteers, as well as of
that of the patrons.
“Multiculturalism
differs from assimilation and pluralism (1) by recognizing a multiplicity of legitimate cultural cores, or centers; (2) by
acknowledging cultural criteria as the source of group formation; and (3) by promoting democratization and equity among groups”
(Kottak and Kozaitis, 2002, p. 50).
In her article promoting
multi-culturalism in Human Services Agencies, Hyde (2004) recognized that changing any organization to be more inclusive has
important benefits but also important challenges. “Successful transformation is planned and purposeful, long-term, based
on careful assessment, participatory, and fully integrated into the organization. Leaders, both formal and informal, and other
organizational stakeholders guide the process” (p. 15). Most of the work, according to this article, will be done by
agency leaders who, if this is to be successful, must be deeply committed to multi-culturalism and use creative problem solving
to help establish it in the organization.
In creating a more inclusive
school, Maher (2003) reported that service learning opportunities with minority groups was a long-term success with the students
in changing their attitudes and behavior. “Students became more in tune with their beliefs, changed their beliefs, and
articulated their beliefs more clearly through these service-learning immersions and that process was facilitated by the reflection
tools” (p. 88). Davis County Aging Services leaders could set up service-earning opportunities with local minority groups
for the staff members of the three Centers. These experiences should help the staff in turn to be committed to multi-culturalism
and they, in turn, could promote service-learning opportunities for patrons of the Center. The results should be more openness
and easier transition to a more diverse clientele.
