THE CENTER FOR CROSS-CULTURAL HEALTH

CROSSWINDS

Crosswinds is the Center for Cross-Cultural Health's quarterly newsletter.  If you are interested in receiving Crosswinds or finding out how to contribute to Crosswinds please contact Maggie Jones at 612-379-3608 or maggie@crosshealth.com. 

Winter 2004

Executive Message

Early in my life I had an understanding of what it meant to be part of a community and the responsibilities I had as a member of those communities. Throughout all of our lives we belong to many different communities based on where we live, our families and friends, school and work, religious and/or spiritual groups, and individuals and groups who share common goals, values and visions. The communities I have been part of during my life have offered rich opportunities for me to explore my value system, build relationships and understand how issues affect me and those I care about. Reflecting further, I am reminded of the power of a community working together towards a common goal, and what we can do to make our communities healthier. 

One of my early experiences with what community can do when united and focused on a common goal was during elementary school. As a class, we were collecting pennies for "underprivileged" children in different countries whose school experience was very different from our own. The nuns told us that these children were attending school in a one-room schoolhouse that might have had one book and few pencils for the entire class. It was hard for my classmates and I to imagine, despite the nuns' attempts to paint vivid pictures of the situation for us to internalize. Their message did reach me, however, although it may not have been the message they intended. The message that experience left me with was the power of a group of people banding together to accomplish a shared goal and intentionally seeking ways to accomplish that goal. 

In junior high, I was again reminded of the power of community. I was the Vice President of the Ecology Club. An oil tanker ran aground somewhere in the San Francisco Bay. Word spread throughout our school that the oil had begun to seep onto our beaches. We went down to the beaches to see the effects of the oil and saw our beaches covered in a black film. At first our awareness was about the effects this spill would have on our lives - how long would it before we could spend an afternoon enjoying the beach again? But as we started to look around we saw dead fish washed up onto the beach smothered in oil, and the seagulls struggling to flap their oil-covered wings. We went back to school and began to organize a group of people to clean up the beach, and told them about the animals suffering. It was amazing the response that we received. Out of the school community - students, teachers, family and friends - close to 100 people came out in gloves to join other environmental groups to clean up the beach. Again, I was struck by what can be accomplished when people work together.

Throughout my childhood, my parents were always very involved in their communities. My parents modeled this to me and my siblings as my mother volunteered her time for many fundraisers and my father was elected to a city office where he served for many years. My parents were also very involved in the Filipino community. They stressed the importance of their children learning early on many of the customs and traditions of the Philippines. Through the Filipino community, they taught us traditional dances and told stories of growing up in the islands. Through my parents, I learned at an early age that a primary aspect of life is to always give back to the community. 

In line with the values I learned during my childhood, my choices in my adult life have almost always had an aspect of community building, be it through working as a volunteer on state and community task forces, a Youth Development Coordinator at a citywide park and recreation department, or my current role as the Director of the Center for Cross-Cultural Health. 

At the Center's 2002 conference, "Healthy Communities; Embracing Cultures, Changing Systems", I was reminded of the what builds strength in a community, when keynote speaker Christopher Freeman Adams talked about the seven patterns to a health community. These patterns include: practicing ongoing dialogue, generating leadership everywhere, shaping its future, embracing diversity, knowing itself, connecting people and resources and creating a sense of community. These seven patterns lay the groundwork for all of us to examine the communities we are part of and to see what we can do to strengthen our communities. 

This issue of Crosswinds is dedicated to highlighting some community initiatives around cultural competency and health, including summaries of a citywide community development project in Willmar, the Minnesota Diabetes Plan 2010, and an initiative led by the League of Minnesota Cities entitled "Building Inclusive Communities." These initiatives will remind us all of the steps it takes to build community and the power of community in action.

We, at the Center, acknowledge that there are many other inspiring community initiatives centering on cultural competency in health that our readers might be involved in or know of. We invite you to share these initiatives so that we may join together in the power of community towards our shared goals of building a more inclusive Minnesota. Information (i.e. articles, websites, publications, etc.) that is submitted will be posted on the Crosswinds page of our website for the next few months.

Thanks again for your continued support of the Center for Cross-Cultural Health.

Sincerely,

Loudi Rivamonte
Executive Director

Please contact us at (612) 379-3573 or by e-mail at ccch@crosshealth.com if you would like to request a copy of the latest issue of Crosswinds. Thank you.