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Exploring cultural competence and community-based solutions

3:05:28

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Council Member Avilés discusses the importance of cultural competence and asks for recommendations from Adama Bah of Afrikana.

Highlights the need for multilingual city apparatus
Asks about concrete steps to address cultural competence
Adama Bah provides insights on training asylum seekers and the importance of understanding cultural nuances

Alexa Avilés

3:05:28

Thank you.

3:05:29

I I I realized that We didn't get into cultural competence nor this notion of how much of our city apparatus is actually multilingual and how we make sure to lean into that strength as opposed to pulling people in in kind of random ways.

3:05:50

I guess I was curious, Adama, you mentioned cultural competency is really a critical issue and how AfriCon is also training folks in community.

3:06:04

Could you could you lay out and I have a vision and you're doing this work?

3:06:09

And I feel like we have a lack of creativity and vision around how to make it happen.

3:06:14

Could you lay out maybe some recommendations around, like, concrete next steps the city could could take to begin to address this?

Adama Bah

3:06:25

Sure.

3:06:25

I think one of the is you have the 5 organizations from those countries.

3:06:31

So if you hire someone because their Caucasian is big French, they may not understand what's happening in in Africa or what we are going through.

3:06:40

Are someone who learned French in their in the United States.

3:06:44

They do not understand the struggles of what we went through.

3:06:46

So they may not understand when a woman doesn't look at them in the eyes or when she a man doesn't shake her hands.

3:06:53

So what we do at our office is we train asylum seekers who speak English and speak 16, 17 languages at a time.

3:07:02

And what we have done with the included civic education so they can understand the systems in America.

3:07:08

And also understanding what's happening and how to be an advocate for your client because not just about translating.

3:07:15

Because if you hear the person being aggressive to your client, you should remind the person they should be respectful.

3:07:21

Your client does not understand.

3:07:23

So it's it's a process.

3:07:25

It's hard to teach that if you don't have compassion.

3:07:28

So I definitely think you have the fun organization that are coming from those ethnic groups.

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Discussion on enforcement and prioritization of language access

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Council member's concluding remarks and acknowledgment of recommendations