This document provides guidance on conducting information outreach in local communities. It discusses the importance of cultural competence and outlines steps for developing an outreach plan. These include getting to know the community through demographics research, finding partners using collaboration methods like Café to Go and Appreciative Inquiry, and identifying health information needs. The goal is to effectively serve diverse populations and increase their use of health services through education and tailored programming.

1. GETTING STARTED WITH
INFORMATION OUTREACH
IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Jacqueline Leskovec, MLIS, MA, RN
Columbus, OH
02 May 2014

2. LET’S GET STARTED!
Population: 11,536,504 (2010)
Population Growth: 1.62% since 2000, rank #48

3. Getting to Know You
• In what country were you born?
• What language did you first learn?
• What languages do you speak now?
• Describe one home remedy used by your family when you
were growing up.

4. Why are you here?

5. Learning Objectives
• Define cultural competence
• Apply principles of cultural competence in outreach
programs
• Examine ways to learn about local communities
• Learn about strategic collaboration
• Outline the steps in developing an outreach plan

6. Cultural Competency
• What is cultural competency and why is it important?
• Are there legal and health care guidelines?
• How do I find community demographics?
• Where are you in your cultural competency proficiency?

7. What is Culture?

8. One Definition
• Characteristic features, beliefs, social norms, and way of
life shared by a racial, religious, or social group, or by
people in a specific place or time
Photo from: Ethnomed.org via Free Burma Rangers
http://www.freeburmarangers.org

9. Cultural Competence
• A set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come
together in a system, agency or among professionals and
enable that system, agency or those professionals to work
effectively in cross-cultural situations.
• From: Cross T, Bazron B, Dennis K, and Isaacs M (1989). Towards a Culturally
Competent System of Care Volume I.

10. Culture and Patient Health
• Beliefs about objects, symbols, food, the body, blood,
non-traditional medicine, etc.
• Communication styles and norms
• Role of relationships
• Ways of learning new information
• Role of translators and interpreters
• Perception of authority figures

11. Rationale for Cultural Competency
• Perception of illness and disease varies by culture
• Diverse belief systems exist related to health, mental
health, healing, wellness
• Individual preferences affect approaches to health care
• Individuals must overcome personal experiences of bias

12. Linguistic Competence
• The capacity of an organization and its personnel to
communicate effectively, and convey information in a manner
that is easily understood by diverse audiences including
persons of limited English proficiency, those who have low
literacy skills or are not literate, and individuals with disabilities.
• From: The National Center for Cultural Competence, Georgetown
University Center for Child and Human Development

13. Legal Guidelines
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act – 1964
• “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color,
or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied
benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
• http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/coord/titlevistat.htm

14. Legal Guidelines
• The Joint Commission
• Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and
Patient-and Family-Centered Care
• http://www.jointcommission.org/Advancing_Effective_Communication/
• More than a patients’ rights issue…critical to safety and quality of
care
• Outreach activities that may increase diverse populations’ use of
hospital services through education and tailoring of services to
meet specific population needs is another important element.

15. Let’s play bingo!

16. What happened?

17. DEMOGRAPHICS

18. Community Demographics

19. Demographics – Census Data
• United States Census Bureau http://census.gov/
• State & County Quick Facts
• http://quickfacts.census.gov/
• American Fact Finder
• http://factfinder2.census.gov/
• People and Households
• http://www.census.gov/people
• State Data Centers
• http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/
• The Modern Language Association Language Map
• http://www.mla.org/resources/census_main

20. State & County QuickFacts
• http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39000.html

21. • http://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/datamapper/map.html

24. • The Modern Language Association Language Map

25. Vietnamese

26. www.countyhealthrankings.org/
Demographics – Health Data

27. Demographics
– School
District Profiles
http://education.ohio.gov/
Topics/Data/Frequently-
Requested-Data

28. This just in!
• Community Tool Box
• http://ctb.ku.edu/en
• USA.com
• http://www.usa.com/

29. Activity:
• Who Are the People in Your
Neighborhood?

30. OUTREACH
“You have to leave the parking lot to do outreach.”

31. What is Outreach?
• “In community-based health information outreach,
organizations work together to improve peoples’ abilities
to find and use health information.”
Source: Getting Started With Community-Based Outreach
http://nnlm.gov/evaluation/guides.html#A2

32. Stages of Change Theory

33. Collaboration Defined

34. Resources
• Getting Started with
Community-Based
Outreach
• Planning Outcomes-
Based Outreach
Projects
• Collecting and
Analyzing Evaluation
Data

35. The Four R’s:
All You Really Need to Know
• Relationships
• Respect
• Relevance
• Repetition

36. Learning About the Community

37. Learn Even More

38. Where do people go for health information?

39. Finding Partners Within the Community
• Network
• Be consistent
• Demonstrate your
commitment
• Work with or join, already
existing organizations
• Attend health fairs,
conferences and other
events in your community
• Don’t forget your public
library!

40. Selecting Partners
• Seek intermediaries
• Community leaders
• Early adopters
• Trusted community members
• Work with people of like passion

41. WORKING TOGETHER
Networking, Coordinating, Cooperating, Collaborating

42. Methods for Strategic Collaboration
• Café to Go (World Café)
• http://www.theworldcafe.com
• Appreciative Inquiry
• http://www.centerforappreciativeinquiry.net/
• Open Space Technology (the Unconference)
• http://www.openspaceworld.org/

43. Identifying Health Information Needs
With your partners:
• Listen
• Abandon preconceived ideas – think “outside the box”
• Think about language, ethnicities, country of origin
• Consider other needs – transportation, childcare, medical
care
• Identify potential barriers
• Café to Go!

44. Café to Go!
• “Hosting conversations about questions that matter”
Images from the World Café Image Bank:
http://www.theworldcafe.com/ibank.html

45. Creating the Environment
• Set the theme
• Who are the participants?
• What are the questions?
• Café setting
• Food
• Tables with toys
• Table host(s)
• Wrap-up
• Tying it all together to the
theme
• Next steps?

46. Café to Go Design Principles
http://www.theworldcafe.com/principles.html

47. Café Etiquette
• Focus on what matters
• Contribute your thinking
• Speak your mind and your heart
• Listen to understand
• Link and connect ideas
• Listen together for insights and deeper questions
• Play! Doodle! Draw!

48. Appreciative Inquiry
• An approach to change that focuses on finding the
positive elements in people and places and using those
aspects of an organization as a foundation for change.
• http://www.nickheap.co.uk/articles.asp?ART_ID=211
• Appreciations Exercise:
http://www.nickheap.co.uk/articles.asp?ART_ID=206
• “AI is intentional inquiry and directed conversation and
story-telling that leads to a place of possibility.”
(Steinbach, John. Contribution to the AI Listserve, July
2005)
• http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/

49. 4-D Cycle of AI
• The 4 Steps
• Discovery – The Best of “What Is”
• Dream – Envisioning “What Might Be”
• Design – Dialoguing “What Should Be”
• Destiny – Innovating “What Will Be”
• Possible Applications
• Mission Statement/Vision Building
• Strategic Planning
• Learning Strengths in Partners
• Civic/Community Development
• Health Care

50. Open Space Technology
• Facilitated (at some level)
• Participant-driven
• Common theme
• Other names:
• Library Camp
• The Unconference

51. Principles and Laws of OST
• Whoever comes is the right people.
• Whenever it starts is the right time.
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
happened.
• When it’s over, it’s over.
• The Law of Two Feet

52. Examples of OST
• Texas Library Association, April 2011: “Information
Literacy from Birth to Earth”
• http://2011tlaunconference.wiki.zoho.com/HomePage.html
• Science, Technology and Engineering Library Leaders in
Action! (STELLA)
• http://stellagroup.wordpress.com/category/stella14/
• HealthCamp DC 2010
• http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/11/12/healthcampdc-2010/

53. ACTIVITY

54. Activity Instructions
• Get together in small groups and select a scenario from
the handout.
• Select a “method” to use to set up a meeting to respond to
the scenario.
• Report highlights to the larger group.

55. SO…….
What Kinds of Activities Might You Do?

56. QUESTIONS?

57. Outreach can take you places you
never expected to go!

58. Thank you!
Jacqueline Leskovec, MLIS, MA, RN
• Outreach, Planning, and Evaluation Coordinator
• NN/LM GMR
• leskovec@uic.edu
• SlideShare: leskovec
NN/LM Outreach Evaluation Resource Center
• http://nnlm.gov/evaluation