Developing Cultural Competence In my opinion, which is based on the few years of experience in working human services jobs, many

of us today are progressing from cultural blindness to cultural pre-competence. Today, diversity in the workplace is the norm rather than the exception. Staff is likely to look different from the people they serve in this case, the formerly incarcerated men and women. They have a wide range of ethnic identifications, religions, material realities (a term that encompasses socioeconomic status), beliefs, and behaviors that lead to rich diversity and cultural complexity acknowledging the immense influence of culture. It is essential to understand that all people are immersed in their own culture beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors which guide their personal and professional interactions. Interestingly, A Center for Relational Living (Second chances program) embodied the characteristics of multicultural working place one white lady, one Hispanic or Latino lady and one African American man that make up just the three staff members of the agency. These three groups of people are working together for the common purpose of helping the needy the formerly incarcerated population. Terminology for identifying people and groups of people is often controversial. Although a detailed discussion of the effects of racism is outside the scope of this assignment, every man-kind serving the needs of people should be cognizant of the continuing marked effect of racism in our mist while we encourage care interactions. Few observations from my own ability to deal with cultural difference like these are that I am much better at simply observing some behaviors than reacting to them. However, human nature is such that everyone tends to be ethnocentric (believing that their own cultural way of life is the norm and the standard by which all others are judged). What we forget is that the next person, who may be from another culture, also may be ethnocentric.