Family Voices of Wisconsin, a statewide network of families who have children and youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities and those who work on their behalf, has published Shared Participation: Increase the Voice of Families from Diverse Backgrounds as Partners and Advisors, a report documenting conversations with parents or primary care providers from diverse cultural groups (Latino/Hispanic, Native American/American Indian, and African-American parents of children and youth with special needs). Is details the parents’:
- Concerns and perceived barriers to participation including working in partnership with professionals on decision-making;
- Recommendations for how to support parental capacity to be effective decision makers for their own children; and
- Suggestions for improvement of organizational recruitment and support for participation on advisory committees and in other
leadership roles.
Based on their conversations with parents, Family Voices of Wisconsin recommends that organizations focus on: continual improvement of programmatic cultural and linguistic competence; becoming more familiar with the values, beliefs and practices of the cultural groups they serve; using clear and understandable language free of jargon in both written and oral communications; and, ensuring that trained interpreters are available or having trained bilingual speaking staff.
The report also includes a checklist for recruiting and supporting parents from diverse backgrounds for advisory roles.
