Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/071 Cultural Competence in a Hotline Presented at the Self Represented

Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07

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Cultural Competence in a Hotline

Presented at the Self Represented Litigants Conference, San Francisco 5/07Claudia C.JohnsonBay Area Legal Aid, Legal Advice Line, Oakland


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Characteristics

High volume On the phone communication No visual, body language, only voice queues Staff has strong" soft skills” and good

listening skills Forces advocate to not assume anything High adherence to protocols/routines


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Local language statistics

Speak another language at home

San Francisco: 46%

Marin: 19%

Napa: 25%

San Mateo: 41%

Alameda: 37%

Santa Clara:45%


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Percentage of population <200% Alameda 33% Santa Clara 18% San Mateo 16% Napa 23% San Francisco 26% Contra Costa 19% Marin 16%


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Cultural Competency tips/Hotlines Need to have double or triple coverage for

each language, one person is not enough Need to monitor queues by language/skill Need to review cases and guard against

providing less services/lower quality due to language difficulties

LEP calls will take longer, that is ok Need to have access to on demand

interpretation services (Language Line)


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Tips

Manager needs to routinely discuss with staff difficult conversations

Try to identify groups that are not doing well with intake protocols, ask why?

Talk with staff about how different groups react to intake protocol to identify training needs

Program needs to collect language data, track it and use it in staffing/resource allocation decisions


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Institutionalizing Cultural Competency Review data and Identify gaps Seek help, seek training:a) Community groupsb) Other nonprofits working with same popc) Staff from similar backgroundd) Reading literature: medical/public

health/interdisciplinary approachInclude in Orientation of new staff and evaluation of all staff


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Be prepared to be open minded When a conversation fails, or the interaction is non

productive ask yourself why? Be non-judgemental, don’t be too harsh on self or

client Identify next steps and what you can do differently

the next time, Listen to the speaker. Sometimes in the way they

tell you the story you will see what their objectives are.

Don’t stereotype


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Must read

Bryant, Susan “The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural

Competence in Lawyers”,

8 Clinical L. Rev. 33, 2001

Documents

Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/071 Cultural Competence in a Hotline Presented at the Self Represented