Cultural humility is a concept that needs to be implemented in human service organizations to improve the effectiveness, responsiveness, and accessibility of provided services. The concept of cultural humility emerged around 30 years ago, which was first introduced by Melanie Tervalon and Jane Murray-Garcia. Cultural humility was identified as “a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and critique, to redressing power imbalances… and to developing mutually beneficial and non-paternalistic partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined populations” (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2020, p. 142). In other words, cultural humility increases care providers’ awareness about the culture of service receivers through self-reflection and introspection.
Even though the majority of human service organizations understand the importance of cultural humility; however, not every organization has a statement of cultural humility/safety. Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH, 2015) has such a statement which is called “Cultural Competency and Responsiveness.” The statement acknowledges that the organization provides services to increasingly diverse populations in terms of race, cultural background, language, age, gender, and sexual orientation (CCEH, 2015). The statement gives definitions to cultural competency, cultural humility, and cultural responsiveness. Additionally, the statement describes the population it serves, demonstrating awareness about the matter, which is crucial for providing top-quality services. Additionally, it provides a list of resources that were used to guide the practice of the organization in terms of cultural safety.
While the statement is adequate, there are two considerable flaws. First, the organization does not describe how the principles of cultural safety were implemented in practice. Thus, it is recommended that CCEH demonstrates examples of how the commitment to cultural safety led to improvements in everyday practice. Second, the organization puts an increased emphasis on cultural competence instead of cultural humility. Unlike cultural competency, cultural humility acknowledges the inability to understand the complicated nature of a person’s culture (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2020). At the same time, cultural humility makes a commitment to learning about the culture of other people. Thus, it is recommended that the organization puts a greater emphasis on cultural humility.
If I were the leader of the organization, I would try to find a medium for communicating with some of the groups of younger homeless people in Connecticut. For instance, the organization acknowledges that more than 30% of the population served are young Hispanics (CCEH, 2015). This population may have trouble communicating with service providers. However, if the organization asked a bilingual young adult to communicate with the population, it would have a greater effect on the outcomes. Such a practice would improve the organization’s cultural humility practices.