Towards an Anti-Racist Social Service Organization

Abstract

This paper outlines key concerns for social service agencies working toward the establishment of an anti-racist organization. The spectrum of barriers at the individual, client-professional, organizational and community levels will be presented. These issues will be surfaced for h e purpose of alerting professionals and adminisfrators to both the discrete and concomitant sets of multicultural issues that can affect an organization's functioning. Moving towards an antiracist stance requires: (I) awareness of those issues impacting the agency's capacity for serviceability, psychological safety and a value added environment for the worker, the consumer and the neighboring community; and (2) a willingness to seek out expert consultation and information about a needed process of sustained diversity intervention. [Single or multiple copies of this article are available from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678, 9:OO a.m.for their criticisms, suggestions and help in editing this work.Note: The term anti-racist work/activity will be used to re€er to a series of perspectives, interventions, strategies and educational methods used to promote diversity, equity and the e l i i a t i o n of discriminatory bias within organizations and community networks. Cmespondence may be sent to: Social Consultants Inc., 4147 East 147th Street, Cleveland, OH 44128. [Single or multiple copies of this article are available from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-%78,9:00 a.m. -5:OOp.m. (EST).]

The Culturally Responsive Social Service Agency: The Application of an Evolving Definition to a Case Study

“…In contrast to the focus on cultural competency over the past four decades, this analysis builds upon the growing literature related to the development of culturally responsive human service organizations (Dana, Behn, & Gonwa, 1992;Ferguson, 1996;Fong & Gibbs, 1995;Nagda & Gutierrez, 2000;Hyde, 2003Hyde, , 2004Inglehart & Becerra, 1995;Nybell & Gray, 2004). As Chernesky (1997) notes:…”

Contradictory Tensions in Anti-Oppression Practice in Feminist Social Services

“…Although few social work authors have dealt with specific, concrete strategies for organizational change from an inclusive, anti-oppressive approach, some have discussed how to develop organizations that are concerned primarily with eradicating one form of oppression. For example, antisexist (feminist) organizations (see, e.g., Iannello, 1992;Kravetz & Jones, 1991;Macdonald, Sprender, & Dubel, 1997;Weeks, 1994), antiracist organizations (see, e.g., Dominelli, 1992;Ferguson, 1996;Fong & Gibbs, 1995;Gutierrez & Nagda, 1996;Henry, Taor, Mattis, & Rees, 2000;Johnson, 1996;Minors, 1996;Stone & Enyolu, 1999;Tator, 1996;Thomas, 1987;United Way of Greater Toronto, 1991), and antiheterosexist organizations (see, e.g., Phillips, McMillen, Sparks, & Ueberle, 1997;Rabin, Keefe, & Burton, 1986) have been discussed in the literature. Although these single forms-ofoppression models of organizational change offer much to draw from, their utility can go only so far in relation to building organizations that simultaneously focus on multiple, intersecting forms of oppression.…”

The Epistemology of Cultural Competence

“…Group processes are used to foster mutual support and to mentor individuals in linking personal experience to broad social inequalities (Dominelli, 1997;Nagda & Zuniga, 2003;Saulnier, 2001). Finally, social workers are urged to challenge institutions to increase participation and decision making by marginalized groups and respond more effectively to the needs of wider segments of the population (Ferguson, 1996;Mokuau & Fong, 1994;Pina & Canty-Swapp, 1999;C. C. Williams, 2001).…”