Running head: Skills Development

Skills Development
Rosine T. Niyungeko
Georgia State University

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Skills Development

Cultural Action Plan

Standard 1. Ethics and Values: I plan to honor my clients ethics and values to the best
that I can. For example, if I was working the Islamic community it is best that I learn to respect
my clients prayer times so that they are able to work with me without them having to give up
their ethics and values to better accommodate my believes.
Standard 2. Self-Awareness: It is best that I recognized my personal and culture values so
that I know where I stand as an individual and professional. I am also able to identify with my
clients by understanding that they have multicultural identities as well. For example, I am
somebodys child but at the same time I am somebodys employee and a student. All these
identities require me to behave a certain way. For example, as a student I am required to do my
work to the best that I can to achieve good grades just like when I am at work expected to behave
as somebodys co-worker and employee.
Standard 3. Cross-Cultural Knowledge: It is best that I keep acquiring knowledge about
my clients history, traditions, values, family systems and artistic expression of major client
groups served (Lum, 2011, p.28). That way I am able to serve my clients accurately without
offending them. I want to be able to keep myself up to date with their values because as
situations change the client might change their position on a certain situation due to their
experience.
Standard 4. Cross-Cultural Skills: I plan to help my clients come to the best conclusion
believes and values not by observing them as negatives or problematic but by empowering them
(Lum, 2011, p.29). For example, I cannot treat my Muslim client the same way that I treat my
Jewish client because they might have different ways of doing things.
Standard 5. Service Delivery: In the future I will work with my clients to the best that I
can by helping them reach their resources. For example, if I am working with a family that needs
help with food I would have to help them meet their needs by using guidelines that the
community offers but remember not to neglect my clients beliefs in doing so.
Standard 6. Empowerment and Advocacy: I will be an advocate for my clients to help
accommodate their values into practice. By raising consciousness, the development of personal
power, and skills for social change. For example, by trying to advocate for my Muslim clients to
let their employer respect their prayer time.
Standard 7. Diverse Workforce: I plan to work in a diverse workforce because I think that
it helps social workers promote diversity as opposed to working in an environment where
everyone is the same. I will try and work in a diverse environment that will help me advance my
cultural competency practice.
Standard 8. Professional Education: I plan to keep up with dates that are going on within
the social work profession. By doing so I will be able to serve my clients accordingly and also

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educate my fellow professional members. To make sure that I keep myself up to date I will be
able to ensure that do to the right thing and not serve my clients by my own beliefs.
Standard 9. Language Diversity: I will work with clients that diverse so by doing so it is
best that I make sure that I have interpreters so that there is no need for misunderstanding. For
example, if I was working with a person from Japan who does not speak English its better that I
have a person to interpret my clients needs without assuming and then getting it wrong or
treating them in a way that they do not value.
Standard 10. Cross Cultural Leadership: It is very important that I am able to help other
professionals understand about cultural competency regarding clients. For example, if I was
working with a doctor dealing with the same client it is important that I make sure that they value
the clients beliefs rather than letting the client do what the doctor wants the client to do.
Social Action Plan
My understanding of the mechanism of oppression and discrimination when working
with diverse clients is that its a way of the dominant group to empower and marginalize the
minority group. For example, the persecution of Jews during the holocaust because for so long
Christians wanted to convert Jews into Christians (UHRC, 2010). Adding to the fact that
Germany lost WWI and then blamed the Jews for losing the war. They were oppressed because
they were the minorities during that time so! who else to blame but the Jews. Other social
groups during that time where discriminated upon which turned into killing a lot of Jews and
other minorities.
I plan to learn about the discrimination of other groups by immersing myself into
educating myself on the history of minorities in our society to see why and how the oppression
they face today came about. Then I plan to work on plan or policies that will help them best fit
into society. I feel like it is not enough just to fight to change policies, but also go into the
community and help people understand that oppression is not going to improve our society. It
will only separate us into different sectors which leads to discrimination making us misrepresent
minorities. For example, I plan to work in hospitals or refugee organizations where there is a
variety people from different walks of life and it is my job to make sure that I serve the in ways
that do not offend their religion, culture, tradition and values.
Post Reflection Experience
When I did my pre-test I was sure that I knew a lot that was going on around me that I
thought that I would know most of everything on the test. What I didnt know is that theres a lot
that goes on around the world that if you have never experienced you would not understand what
goes on around the world. For example, I was shocked by how much I didnt know about Native
Americans and the oppression that they have to face every day, whether it is them dealing with
the healthcare systems or school. Because of the lack of not knowledge of minority groups and
social polices I was not able to get the knowledge to understand them.
After taking my post-test I reevaluated my scores and was able to see that I had come a
long way to become more culturally competent with other cultures. When I took my pre-test I

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found myself scoring on levels one and levels two but when I took my post-test I found myself
on levels three and four.

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Reference

Lum, D. (2010). Culturally Competent Practice. In Culturally competent practice: A framework

for growth and action (4th ed.). Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Pub.
UHRC. (2010, December 22). The Jewish Holocaust. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from
http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/2010/12/the-jewish-holocaust