Applying CLC to SS/HS

So, what does CLC look like when applied specifically to an SS/HS Initiative? The following sections provide examples and strategies for applying CLC to the five SS/HS core elements: (1) safe school environments and violence prevention activities, (2) alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention activities, (3) behavioral, social, and emotional supports for students, (4) mental health services, and (5) early childhood social and emotional learning programs.

The Application of CLC to SS/HS Initiatives

It is critical to research and learn about your own community’s circumstances and needs—the disparities or disproportions that exist in your local schools and systems. For example, ethnic/racial groups are often over-represented within the juvenile justice, child welfare, and special education systems. Is this true in your community? Examine your own program as well as others to determine if any groups are over- or under-represented in prevention activities, mentoring programs, community-based services and supports, and other proactive activities. The programs you choose and the direction you take will then guided by your research.

Once you’ve done your research, work with your management team to develop strategies to reduce or eliminate those disparities within your sphere of influence. For example:

• Engage school personnel and community members in a strengths-based approach to identify and emphasize the strengths of diverse and un- or underserved and “invisible” students. 
• Encourage partners to respectfully reach out to underserved communities and to include them in all program areas—such as planning, governance, decision-making, provision of services and support, and evaluation. 

As an example, see “Working Classroom” (www.workingclassroom.org), a nonprofit organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that works with “invisible” and under-represented youth. The group recruits the majority of its students, board, staff, and instructors from historically ignored communities and then nurture students’ ability to work in their native languages. Working Classroom uses formal and informal education, including visual and dramatic arts, to prepare students for professional success.

• In many instances, the most powerful community entity is the church, mosque, or temple. Including the faith-based community in your outreach efforts is critical to engaging your population. Consider partnering with youth ministers or other outreach ministries, which can lend credibility to your program. 
• Identify the cultural leaders who are their community’s historical knowledge-keepers and sometimes their “gate keepers” —these leaders can be a significant resource. Invite them at the outset to participate in planning, decision-making, and shaping the direction of the Initiative. Encourage their representation in your governance structure. Seek their advice as content experts. 

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Prevention Activities

Before beginning your work in a community, it is prudent to ask community members what their needs are and what has worked in the past or is working for them now. Cultural discovery is a process of respectful, culturally competent inquiry and dialogue with community members about their world view regarding wellness, illness (imbalance), healing, and the supports that address the needs they identify. This process takes into consideration and attempts to understand and incorporate the context in which youth and their families live. It may include learning about the socio-cultural-political issues that affect the community, such as historical or current trauma; immigrants’ or refugees’ experiences; matriarchal and patriarchal lineages, which sheds insight into decision-making and authority figures in the families and community; the role of religion and spirituality; language preferences and proficiencies; and relationships with law enforcement. Cultural discovery engages community members and SS/HS personnel in a respectful dialogue from a nonjudgmental perspective.

In doing prevention work, “western benevolence” can again rear its head. Because of the “powerful” positions we hold (technical assistance providers, teachers, superintendents, etc.) or the school-based knowledge we have acquired, as reflected by our degrees, we frequently assume that we are the only ones with knowledge, experience, and expertise to share. However, prevention activities have been practiced for centuries, if not longer, among most cultures. It is important to value a community’s assets, including its historical and current experience and expertise. By partnering with communities, we can integrate cultural and indigenous practices with scientific best practices to increase the likelihood of success.

A prime example is El Instituto Familiar de la Raza (www.ifrsf.org/) in San Francisco, California, whose Therapeutic Drumming Program utilizes music, prayer, chanting, and traditional spirituality and health beliefs, emphasizing culture as a central element of the healing process. The program’s prevention and intervention practices blend traditional beliefs and practices with western medicine to promote positive behaviors in youth.

Other CLC approaches to prevention include the following:

• Using participatory research models of outreach, engagement, and service delivery. 
• Including families and youth on evaluation and research teams. 
• Identifying and collaborating with the community gate-keepers and local experts who have the “pulse” of the community—those community members who may not be visible to those outside the community, but who know everything and everybody, give their blessing to community activities, and have the clout and credibility to halt activities if they deem that the community was not appropriately included in the outreach and engagement process. 
• If your population of focus is part of a traditional ethnic/racial community, it is likely that their cultural and spiritual beliefs play a part in their concepts of wellness, illness, and healing. To effectively engage this population, work with the community’s natural supports and helpers, such as neighbors, extended families, sports coaches, padrinos, compadres, ministers/pastors/priests/rabbis, and teachers—those individuals who families and communities rely on to support each other in traditional ways. These may also include promotoras/es or community health workers who are hired to bridge the formal systems with the community. 
• Even when they’re effective, prevention programs are typically the first to be cut. The best prevention and intervention models are those that are collaborative and organic and that encourage community empowerment. To foster collaboration and the community’s sense of ownership, and to reduce competition for limited resources, acknowledge the inter-dependence of systems and the community, and seek ways to work in partnership. 

By fostering models of prevention that seek community-defined and accepted practices emanating from on-the-ground experiences, SS/HS prevention efforts can be more successful.

Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Supports for Students

Outreach to and engagement of diverse, unserved, and underserved families is critical, especially at the beginning of any initiative, to promote ownership, increase family and youth recruitment and retention in your efforts, and ensure sustainability. Generic outreach methods are often unsuccessful with diverse populations because the media, the message, and the messenger are not the right fit for the community. To effectively engage diverse communities, try the following:

• Make sure that your outreach and engagement activities are culturally matched with the families you serve. Hire community cultural experts to advise you. Consult others who have been successful in reaching out to and engaging this community. 
• Be flexible in your outreach and engagement approaches. Try new approaches, even if you do not have experience with them. It never hurts to ask the community itself for help and advice! 
• Promote a “youth guided” approach. The motto of the youth movement is, “Nothing about me without me.” Engage youth from the beginning in planning, designing, delivering, and evaluating their programs. 

While it is easy to engage students who are already active in leadership positions, make an effort to identify and engage those students who are not involved, who shy away from the limelight, and who may have something to say but aren’t often asked. Providing leadership opportunities for these youth can pay off immeasurably, as no one has yet tapped their potential. Opportunities to develop skills—such as leadership, public speaking, research, media creation, and policy development—foster students’ self-esteem, pride, and sense of ownership.

A grade 5 public school classroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers a specific example of how CLC for male students is incorporated into a student support program. A male teacher designed a curriculum for his all-male class, which included sitting (and bouncing) on large exercise balls during class (which utilizes students’ excess energy and keeps them focused), using books with positive male role models, acting out vocabulary and spelling words as a way to learn spelling and meaning, wearing blazers to emphasize the importance and seriousness of learning, and competing for the opportunity to answer questions, which students are most eager to do. The program has been very successful because it uses different learning styles, gender-specific approaches, and values-building to meet the needs of a specific subgroup of students in a culturally competent manner.

Engaging students in culturally specific projects can foster a culture of pride and belonging. The following are good examples:

• Harlem Children’s Zone (www.hcz.org) in New York transformed an area of 100 square blocks into a complete learning environment, from prenatal care to college, dedicated to breaking the cycle of generational poverty. The program serves more than 8,000 children and 6,000 adults. 
• NTU/Ujima is an Afro-centric curriculum that emphasizes the Kwanzaa principle of collective work and responsibility, as well as collective learning, interdependent approaches to problem-solving and skill development, and respect for others, especially elders. http://plcntu.org/publications/NTUPsychotherapyAnAfrocentricApproach.pdf 
• The Native American Youth and Family Center (www.nayapdx.org/) in Portland, Oregon, uses traditional practices (regalia and drum making, classes on native history, etc.) to foster cultural connections in a prevention modality. 
• The Latin American Youth Center (www.layc-dc.org/) in Washington, D.C., engages youth in programs that are relevant to their history and experiences. 
• Gay-Straight Alliances across the country (http://gsanetwork.org/) foster open, honest, and healthy dialogues among diverse youth, with the goal of promoting acceptance and tolerance. 

Mental Health Services Selection

Begin the important process of selecting mental health services and supports by involving family members, youth, and community partners in researching local demographic data. This allows you to know your population well and to choose prevention and treatment services and practices that match the needs of your population, culturally and linguistically.

Determine whether the practices you are considering were normed or standardized on the population(s) you will be serving. Were the study samples proportionately representative of the population of focus? Are you tracking CLC-informed data quantitatively and qualitatively to capture the disparities in access, availability, quality, utilization, and outcomes for diverse, unserved, underserved, and “invisible” populations? Include evaluators, family members, youth, providers, CLC experts, and administrators in determining whether course corrections in service delivery are indicated to address any disparities.

MIS data elements that are well-chosen and data that are properly analyzed can help you “make the case” to funders to sustain your program efforts strategies.

As you are choosing best practices, it is important to proceed with caution in “off the shelf” use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) with people of color. Not all EBPs have been normed on people of color; some may work extremely well, and others will not. If you are using cultural adaptations of EBPs, use only those that are based on and reflective of the world view of the population(s) you’re serving. Here are some excellent examples:

• Guiando a Niños Activos is a cultural adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (described in McCabe, Yeh, Garland, Lau, & Chavez, 2005). 
• Dr. Dolores BigFoot, from the Indian Country Child Trauma Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (www.icctc.org/treatment.htm), culturally adapted three EBPs for American Indian children: (1) Honoring Children, Making Relatives—Cultural Adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, (2) Honoring Children, Mending the Circle—Cultural Adaptation of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and (3) Honoring Children, Respectful Ways—Cultural Adaptation of Treatment for Children with Sexual Behavior Problems. 

When working with ethnic/racial populations, be sure to consider not only EBPs but also cultural adaptations of EBPs, Practice-Based Evidence,⁴  and Community Defined Evidence.⁵  Also, since some EBPs are proprietary, be mindful of the cost and of your community’s ability to sustain proprietary practices over time.

Early Childhood Social and Emotional Learning Programs

Children’s cultural identities are shaped during the infant and toddler years. It is important to encourage and emphasize a CLC approach when working with diverse families with young children.

For early childhood programs, consider choosing curricula for caregivers that emphasizes the specific areas of need that are identified by the community in which the program is based. For example, in a heavily immigrant or primarily non-English speaking community, young children will need support for the development of their home or primary language while learning it, and support in acquiring English-language skills to succeed in school. Infants and toddlers need caregivers (child care staff, preschool teachers, etc.) who respect their home cultures and languages and who are willing to learn about and adapt to diverse cultural practices (Matthews, 2008).

To foster this approach and sustain the success of your early childhood learning programs, caregivers need access to appropriate resources to support their learning and the children’s cultural identity. Caregivers also need ongoing professional development to add to their own understanding of the culture and language of the children they are caring for. The Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care Project (Matthews, 2008) recommends that initiatives do the following:

• Develop and implement curricula that teach child care and preschool staff about working effectively cross-culturally 
• Work to educate policymakers about the need for (1) certification requirements that include core training in CLC, and (2) a diverse multilingual and bicultural workforce to meet the demands of the population

³While investigating the best practices to fit the population you are serving, it is still important to comply with the SAMHSA and DOE requirements to implement evidence-based practices (listed on the national registers). However, you can use local funds to engage in additional activities and practices—simply submit a request through your project officer.

⁴Practice-Based Evidence is “information gathered from service providers, families, and youth that is used to identify effective interventions and areas for program or practice improvement” (Evans, Connell, Barkham, Marshall, & Mellor-Clark, 2003).

⁵Community-Defined Evidence is “a set of practices that communities have used and found to yield positive results as determined by community consensus over time and which may or may not have been measured empirically but have reached a level of acceptance by the community” (Martinez, Callejas, & Hernandez, 2010).