Serving Diverse Communities

What you’ll learn

• Practice cultural humility — treating the people you serve as the experts on their own lives
• Recognize and respect cultural, faith, ability, and generational differences in service
• Communicate inclusively across language barriers using plain language and teach-back
• Serve people with disabilities accessibly and use respectful, person-centered language
• Catch the assumptions and microaggressions that quietly create barriers to help

Course outline

1. 1

   Cultural humility, not just cultural competence

   5 min

2. 2

   The diversity you can’t see

   5 min

3. 3

   Communicating across a language barrier

   6 min

4. 4

   Serving people with disabilities — and the words we use

   5 min

5. 5

   Assumptions, bias & microaggressions

   5 min

6. 6

   Faith, food, family & generational difference

   4 min

7. 7

   Putting it together: a welcoming encounter

   4 min

Sources & further reading

• U.S. Census Bureau — Language Use in the United States (American Community Survey)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — Disability Impacts All of Us
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) — Use the Teach-Back Method: Tool 5
• CDC — Plain Language Materials & Resources (Health Literacy)
• University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work — Cultural Humility & Cultural Competence in Social Work