Welcome to the Lane Community College Cultural Competency Professional Development & Implementation Committee blog.

Here, you can follow our progress as we map out and track the committee’s work, share resources and materials related to the goals and purposes of the committee, and communicate unfolding committee developments with the larger College community. As a foundation for the committee’s work, we endeavor to link our work to the Lane Community College Core Values as well as the Strategic Directions, and we have drafted the following charter:

Cultural Competency Professional Development
and Implementation Committee Charter

The Committee: The Cultural Competency Professional Development
and ImplementationCommittee consists of students, staff, faculty, and administrators at Lane Community College who bring a vital cross section of interests, experience, and expertise to the purpose and scope of work defined below.

Framework: Lane Community College Diversity Core Value

• Welcoming, valuing and promoting diversity among staff, students and our community 
• Cultivating a respectful, inclusive and accessible working and learning environment

• Working effectively in different cultural contexts to serve the educational and linguistic needs of a diverse community
• Developing capacity to understand issues of difference, power and privilege (adopted 2010)

2010 – 2015 Diversity Plan:

http://www.lanecc.edu/diversity/diversity-plan

Diversity Strategic Direction

A Diverse and Inclusive Learning and Working Environment

• Create a diverse and inclusive learning college
• Develop institutional capacity to respond effectively and respectfully to students, staff, and community members of all cultures, languages, classes, races, genders, ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, and abilities (adopted 2010)

Purpose: Utilizing a social justice framework to address institutional barriers and strengths related to the development of a culturally competent organization, and recognizing the intersectional nature of identity, the committee will develop a comprehensive cultural competency/fluency professional development program to increase institutional capacity to respond effectively and respectfully to students, staff, and community members of all cultures, languages, classes, races, genders, ethnic backgrounds, ages, military status, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, and abilities, including recommendations for the development or adoption of systems for monitoring, tracking, and evaluating the program.

Scope of Work:

• Define “cultural competency” and name diversity awareness/cultural competency/fluency professional development program.
• Conduct a review of best practices in educational institutions and nonprofits.
• Develop a cultural competency professional development model with multimodal levels of competencies (e.g., beginning, intermediate, advanced).
• Identify institutional barriers and strengths related to the development of a culturally competent organization.
• Identify self-assessment tool(s) to assist employees, departments, and the institution in determining their level of competency in each of the identified content areas.
• Compile a college-wide inventory of existing offerings, resources, expertise, etc.
• Develop professional development offerings for each of the areas identified by the students and the Diversity Council for each competency level (Phase 2). With recognition of the intersectional nature of identity/identities, areas of focus will include:
  •  Race; Ethnicity; Culture; Language
  •  Religion; Spirituality
  •  Socio-Economic Background; Social Class
  •  Gender; Sexual Orientation; Domestic Violence; Marital Status
  •  Accessibility; Age; Ability; Mental Health
  •  Veterans; Military Status
  •  Understanding of Social Justice; Understanding of the Dynamics Related to Power, Privilege, and Oppression[1]
• Develop professional development offerings for additional identified areas per competency levels (Phase 2).
• Establish a tracking system to record and monitor employee completion of cultural competency professional development.
• Make recommendations for the incorporation of a cultural competency requirement into all employee evaluations.
• Develop an evaluation component of professional development trainings and activities that includes soliciting feedback from student and employee groups as well as producing an annual report to the LCC Board of Education and the larger College community.

 

[1] This list was defined by agreement and after many long conversations on the part of the Lane Community College Diversity Council and the ASLCC. Rather than listing various groups comprehensively by need or interest, the general intent of the list is to define the range of issues that impact a broad cross-section of students and employees at Lane. The list is not exhaustive—indeed, it likely could never identify every group or challenge that may arise in conversations on diversity in an institutional context. However, the list does suggest broad content areas within which the challenges or needs of specific groups and individuals can be organized in order to develop a variety of employee training opportunities as part of a rich and robust cultural competency program at Lane Community College.