Wherever you live in Queensland, your community will be culturally diverse – what often surprises us is how diverse it is.  Except in Shires with the smallest populations, we tend not to be fully aware of who is in our community.

For many reasons people from culturally diverse backgrounds do not access services or participate in activities that are provided to the community by government and service organisations.

It may be because of:

•  language barriers
•  lack of information
•  a feeling of not being welcome or
•  the service, project, or event is not tailored to meet their needs  

In worst-case scenarios, there is direct racism where people or organisations actively exclude individuals or groups from participating on the basis of their colour, culture or religion.

But most often, we exclude people without even thinking about it.  We, as part of organisations, big or small, just do things ‘the way we always have’.

Unless you know who is in your community and who is accessing your services or participating in your activities you cannot know who might be missing out.

The following guide can assist your Council to find out who is in your multicultural community.  It specially focuses on young people.

Step 1  - finding out who is there

It is important to note that Census counts usually under-estimate the number of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, for a number of reasons.  To improve the level of accuracy in building profiles of these groups it is important to:                                                                                                                 

• Use statistics gathered from the question relating to a person’s ancestry, when accessing data from the 2001 or later Census information
• Use statistics from Census questions on Language Spoken at Home and Country of Birth to supplement this
• Cross-reference with other data from schools, TAFE or University, community leaders, service providers and religious or community organisations – this will give you a much clearer picture of who is in your community
• Consider issues issues around the likelihood of non-return of Census forms for some community groups

Identify clearly the proportions of young people from culturally diverse backgrounds in your community.  Of course this will never be totally accurate – but does help as a guide

Step 2 – finding out if young people from culturally diverse backgrounds access Council’s services and activities for young people

• Make a comprehensive list of all your services, activities, youth groups, leadership forums, events and functions
• Having assessed the level of diversity amongst young people in your target area in Step 1, start to keep records of attendance (where possible) as to whether young people of culturally diverse backgrounds are participating in all your Council’s activities for young people
• Start to make comparisons – can you see that all young people are participating in your Council’s programs, or are they just not participating?

This can be quite straightforward or difficult depending on the size and breadth of your Council’s work with young people.

It may also take some time.  You may take time to know the young people well enough to ask about cultural background.  You may want to start building your own and your Council’s cultural competence.

Step 3 - Building your Council’s cultural competence

What is cultural competence (as we use it in this guide)?

According to Williams (2001) who first described this term, a culturally competent program:

• Values and respects diversity  
• Conducts self-assessment
• Addresses issues and opportunities (our addition) when different cultures interact
• Acquires cultural knowledge
• Adapts to the cultures of the individuals and communities served  

Step 4 - Doing the Quiz

When you’ve understood something of what we mean by cultural competence, take the Cultural Competence Continuum Quiz  and assess how well your attendance tally matches up with the proportion of young people of various cultural groups actually in your community.  In what ways are they involved or not involved?

You may find that your Council is well accessed and that full engagement of the culturally diverse community, and indeed the whole community, is already a reality.

Step 5 - Making Contact

You may find that your Council is not as well accessed or engaging of young people of culturally diverse backgrounds as you thought.  If you haven’t read the detailed materials on cultural competence, you may find it provides a framework for your next steps.

Cultural competence is not something that develops instantly.  It requires ongoing sensitive learning and possibly some mistakes along the way!  If you are not sure about a cultural practice, it is usually OK to ask, either the CALD young person when not overheard by others or another member of their community.  Usual professional practices of confidentiality and respect apply as always.

Remember that YOU have a cultural background as well, with assumptions, beliefs, normal practices and celebrations.  We often carry them with us without realising their impact on others.  If you are in a position of power, the impact will be greater.

Notice that you also carry with you some or most elements of your Council’s culture – ways of doing things.  This may be unfamiliar or strange to any young person, and particularly so for one from a diverse cultural background.

Everyone is adjusting and learning – adapting to each other in a myriad of ways.  If you don’t adjust you may find you are left behind!

How to make contact

Once you have a better idea of who is in your community – by going to churches and other religious centres, by visiting schools, TAFE or other educational institutions, or calling any local multicultural or ethnic groups, you may find you’re already started to make contact.  Like the movie ‘six degrees of separation’ you may soon find that you’re introduced to others.

However there may be difficulties accessing certain groups.  Factors which may come into play here may be that the group:

• Have not been included before so they may be hesitant or unsure of participating (why now?)
• May not understand the nature of the activity or service – it may seem or be culturally inappropriate (eg activities on certain times of the week are not acceptable to some groups)
• May have experienced broad range of racist comments or treatment and may be weary of participating in mainstream activities for fear of being further mistreated (eg some Asian groups have recently felt very unwelcome)
• May traditionally operate on an extended family model and be happy to continue that method of supporting young people (the young person may or may not agree with this fully)
• May have protocols for how they are to be invited to participate.  You may need to ask the elders or chiefs or parents before young people are given permission to attend or participate (eg Samoan community example)
• May not like or feel comfortable with the activities (eg Muslim women would need to be able to swim only under certain conditions)
• May still be in the process of settlement which requires enormous effort and concentration and often grief at the loss of one’s home country leaving little energy to engage in new activities in the community.  This may come later 
• May have a history of torture and/or trauma from living under oppressive regimes in their country of origin (or indeed in Australia if Indigenous) and may be very suspicious of any government organisation

There also may be greater reticence from some individuals or groups than others to participate.  For example. a young person may not feel the need or desire for more engagement outside the family, may not be ready to participate or may be offended by your approach.

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