To understand cultural competence, it helps to start with the definition of culture. In their seminal work Cultural Issues and Responses: Defining Cultural Competence in Child Welfare (1989), Cross et al write that culture involves the “integrated pat- tern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious or social group.”

Cultural competence, they write, involves having the capacity to function proficiently within the context of a particular culture. Competence is based on a set of harmonious actions, approaches, and policies that come together and enable the people working with the system of care to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.

Culturally competent services, then, refers “to systems, agencies and practitioners who have the capacity to respond to the unique needs of populations whose cultures are different than that which might be called dominant or mainstream American.”