Cultural Competence

The Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD), through its National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC), is recognized as a national and international leader in the design, implementation, and evaluation of cultural and linguistic competence in a broad array of systems and organizations.
Our values, traditions, norms, politics, technologies, religiosity, and spirituality are culturally laden. Culture influences beliefs and practices about health and well-being, and how we communicate and interact with each other. Culture provides the identity for individuals, groups, and societies and is embedded in every aspect of life. The capacity to address culture and language at the individual, organizational, and system levels is an indispensable aspect of the current and future workforce, both nationally and globally.

Cultural competence and linguistic competence are essential areas of knowledge and skills for professionals in education, health care, behavioral health care, human services, business and a host of other public and private sectors.

We utilize the following approaches to support organizations and individuals in their cultural and linguistic competence journeys:

  • provide training, technical assistance, and consultation,
  • contribute to knowledge through publications and research,
  • create tools and resources to support health, mental health, and social services systems and providers, and 
  • support leadership to promote and sustain cultural and linguistic competence.
Family

Selected Activities

Research and Evaluation

Technical Assistance

Workforce Development

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development is a designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.