Through the Lens of Culture:
Building Capacity for Social Change and Sustainable Communities
By Patricia St. Onge, Breonna Cole, and Sheryl Petty

What is a culturally-based approach to capacity building for social change?

The world is a rapidly changing place and with this, the illusion of separateness is diminishing under the same force of change as that which originally gave power to the notion of the "melting pot." We now have the opportunity to think differently about how we engage with one another, and we have the opportunity to be intentional about building a worldwide neighborhood that reflects the strengths of all of its members, and works together to overcome the challenges that we all face.

"Cultural competency" has become a buzz-phrase in the nonprofit sector as well as in corporations and government. Traditional definitions of culture have focused on various components of cultural identity, with some authors describing culture as representing "the values, customs, beliefs, heritage, and norms of a particular group of people from a particular society." For many communities, culture is more diverse than race or ethnicity. It incorporates a host of perspectives that include language, gender, class, age, religion, and disability to name a few. Thus every understanding of cultural reality comes from a unique point of view based on an individual's life experiences in the context of the cultural groups in which s/he moves.

The mission of the National Community Development Institute (NCDI) is to provide customized capacity building services that promote community building and social transformation in diverse, low-income communities. Our compelling vision is to build strong, healthy, resilient communities of color with the leadership, infrastructure, and civic participation to effect social change, shape public policy, and influence the political economy in a diverse society.

NCDI understands that individuals, organizations and communities experience the world through the lens of culture, whether or not we recognize it or name it as such. The cultural lens, as we at NCDI use this term, has multiple dimensions, including race and ethnicity, language, gender, sexual identity, socio-economic status, religion, etc.

The "iceberg" is often used as a metaphor to describe how culture plays out in the world: above the surface are the external dimensions of culture including food, dress, music, art, dance, literature, language, celebrations, etc. Below the surface are the more subtle areas where culture impacts our worldview: notions of modesty, conceptions of beauty, relationship with nature, engagement patterns (e.g., competitive vs. cooperative), patterns of emotional response, non-verbal communication (e.g., eye contact, hand gestures), relationship to time and space, and many more. A focus on only the tip of the iceberg limits our ability to be aware of and to deeply engage with individuals and communities. ... Click here to download pdf file

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