Multicultural Communities

With research showing that clients from diverse racial and ethnic groups disproportionately experience barriers in their interactions with social services and that providers recognize the need to be better prepared to work with these groups, this book invites us to rethink current approaches to social work practice with multicultural communities. We begin with a synthesis of the current evidence on the provision of care to multicultural communities that provides an in-depth look at both client and provider experiences. The following chapters offer tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and reveal often unrecognized problems with current models of social work practice. A unique compilation of rigorous qualitative, experimental, and community-based studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded interventions and identify the specific factors associated with positive outcomes. Areas covered include disability, marriage and couple relationship problems, domestic violence, and mental illness within Latinx, African American, First Nations, and South Asian communities. As the authors in this book show, the stories of multicultural communities are narratives of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Yet, social work underutilizes rich family and community cultural resources. By not facilitating their involvement, social service systems compromise these vital resources which social services cannot replace. In arguing that we need to expand professional boundaries to encompass indigenous practices, family and extended kin, and therapeutic relationships that make sense to different cultural groups, this book will be of interest to those studying the ways in which social work practice can be improved to better suit the needs of a racially and ethnically diverse population. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

This insightful volume describes a sample of prevention demonstration projects of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Substance Abuse Prevention in Multicultural Communities illuminates various aspects of prevention theory, practice, and research with a focus on the design, implementation, adaptation, and outcome of specific demonstration programs. Researchers work with prevention professionals to describe, measure, and intensify effects of interventions upon both intermediate problems and the ultimate long-term goal of decreasing substance abuse. Chapters in Substance Abuse Prevention in Multicultural Communities demonstrate how the CSAP demonstration logic model works. The process of prevention program design begins with an analysis of the root causes of the problem as defined by the specific community and illuminated by theory. Comprehensive prevention programs that buttress community strengths and build on local resources are then designed to deal with these problems. The programs you’ll learn from include: a leadership and substance abuse prevention program, based on the social influence model, for girls in grades 6-8 from four geographically and ethnically diverse communities a program intricately designed to build resiliency and protective factors within young at-risk American Indian children in a Head Start program which addresses school transition, school readiness, school attendance, and classroom-based prevention activities. a family skills training program for African American parents in substance abuse treatment, which evolved in response to client and evaluation feedback a program for Native American families, which uses a culturally oriented curriculum emphasizing traditional values, beliefs, and practices a coalition of neighborhood agencies, organized to provide a comprehensive array of school and community-based prevention services, which impacted gang membership in inner-city Latino youth. a prevention program specifically designed to serve the diverse needs of Asian-American youth from five different Asian ethnic communities a model substance abuse prevention program implemented to provide counseling, mentoring, and academic support to Hispanic and African-American students in an urban public middle school the nationally recognized FAST program which strengthens the family and brings parents and schools together in building up protective factors for high risk elementary students a program that combines several complementary strategies to develop personal and communal empowerment in Native American communities. Substance Abuse Prevention in Multicultural Communities illustrates the wealth of information generated by demonstration programs. Unlike a standard research protocol that imposes and tests a rigid, single-focused intervention under carefully controlled circumstances, these programs do science in real-life situations, documenting and measuring effects of multiple interventions.

"Communicating in multicultural settings is a field of central interest to those involved in ensuring access to healthcare. Ever-increasing migration requires access to essential legal, medical and social services. This book provides an overview of current issues in this field through a multi-faceted approach, situating the work of potential healthcare professionals and intercultural intermediaries in the broader context of public service providers and practitioners. The book is not oriented towards one population in particular; rather it is directed towards multiple groups, mainly to students of the health sciences and medical professionals interested in communicating with migrants and visitors, and those who have to work in multicultural settings. It is not a theoretical book, nor is it rule-based by any means. It is a handbook oriented towards reflection and practice resulting from years of experience training mediators, interpreters and translators working in minority languages within multicultural settings. It can be used for self-study and independent learning, but will also be extremely useful to teachers and trainers of future doctors and medical staff who seek materials or readings for their classes. Furthermore, it represents an excellent resource for mediators, interpreters and translators who want to learn more about communication in healthcare setting"--Provided by publisher.

With over 20 percent of the population foreign-born, and with more than 250 ethnic origins, Canada is one of the world's most multicultural societies. Canada's ethnic and religious diversity continues to grow alongside immigration. Yet how well is Canada's model of multiculturalism and citizenship working, and how well are Canadians, whatever their ethnic or religious origin, doing? Will Canada's relative success compared to other countries continue, or are there emerging fault lines in Canadian society? Canadian Multiculturalism: Evidence and Anecdote undertakes an extensive review of the available data from Statistics Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada operational statistics, employment equity and other sources to answer these questions and provide an integrated view covering economic outcomes, social indicators, and political and public service participation. Over 200 charts and tables are used to engage readers and substantiate the changing nature of Canadian diversity.

The increasingly multicultural fabric of modern societies has given rise to many new issues and conflicts, as ethnic and national minorities demand recognition and support for their cultural identity. This book presents a new conception of the rights and status of minority cultures. It argues that certain sorts of `collective rights' for minority cultures are consistent with liberal democratic principles, and that standard liberal objections to recognizing such rights on grounds of individual freedom, social justice, and national unity, can be answered. However, Professor Kymlicka emphasises that no single formula can be applied to all groups and that the needs and aspirations of immigrants are very different from those of indigenous peoples and national minorities. The book discusses issues such as language rights, group representation, religious education, federalism, and secession - issues which are central to understanding multicultural politics, but which have been surprisingly neglected in contemporary liberal theory.

This title was first published in 2001: Using detailed international research, this volume explores the background, current position and key features of minority communities living within multi cultural societies. Focusing particularly upon family life, the contributors investigate minorities ranging from the Old Order Mennonites and Cree and Ojibway Aboriginals in Canada, to conservative Christians in the USA, Afrikaners in South Africa and Pakistanis in the UK. The chapters demonstrate that while each of these communities is distinctive in terms of history, culture, religion and family behaviour, they all share an ability to retain and nourish their separate identity. The book thus provides fascinating insights into the lives of minority families and draws important conclusions surrounding the ways in which they keep themselves separate from, while still participating in, society as a whole.

With research showing that clients from diverse racial and ethnic groups disproportionately experience barriers in their interactions with social services and that providers recognize the need to be better prepared to work with these groups, this book invites us to rethink current approaches to social work practice with multicultural communities. We begin with a synthesis of the current evidence on the provision of care to multicultural communities that provides an in-depth look at both client and provider experiences. The following chapters offer tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and reveal often unrecognized problems with current models of social work practice. A unique compilation of rigorous qualitative, experimental, and community-based studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded interventions and identify the specific factors associated with positive outcomes. Areas covered include disability, marriage and couple relationship problems, domestic violence, and mental illness within Latinx, African American, First Nations, and South Asian communities. As the authors in this book show, the stories of multicultural communities are narratives of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Yet, social work underutilizes rich family and community cultural resources. By not facilitating their involvement, social service systems compromise these vital resources which social services cannot replace. In arguing that we need to expand professional boundaries to encompass indigenous practices, family and extended kin, and therapeutic relationships that make sense to different cultural groups, this book will be of interest to those studying the ways in which social work practice can be improved to better suit the needs of a racially and ethnically diverse population. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

This book examines claims for recognition of cultural difference from immigrant and Indigenous minorities, highlighting the ways in which they intersect with ideas of national community. Busbridge argues that there is an important, albeit under-explored, relationship between nation and multicultural politics of recognition. Drawing on the Australian context, the book explores how nation features as a productive, if somewhat ambivalent, discursive resource in contemporary Muslim and Aboriginal struggles to be recognised. In demanding recognition, minorities enter into the business of ‘making the nation’ by positing alternative conceptions of national identity, culture and belonging that are more attentive to their differences and claims. This dynamic is engaged as an expression of ‘postcolonial citizenship’. Postcolonial citizenship is imagined in terms of the ways in which minority groups actualise multicultural realities through rewriting ideas of national community. It underlines the critical importance of revising the power relations that deem some groups ‘more national’ and others less so – and which, in Western multicultural societies, are typically tied to notions of the ‘West’ and its ‘others’. This book is an important conceptual, theoretical and political intervention that brings postcolonialism and multiculturalism into dialogue on the increasingly potent issues of nation and national identity. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of sociology, politics, postcolonial studies, culture, identity and nation.