CULTURE CLUB

Welcome to GSWCF’s Culture Club! By now, we all know that we serve more than 33,000 girls and 13,000 adult volunteers within our eight-county jurisdiction. The Culture Club is an information source developed to help our adult membership understand the racial, economic and cultural makeup living within Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sumter counties. It’s extremely important to educate not only ourselves, but the volunteers, Board members and other adult membership we work with.

What is cultural competence?

There are many definitions for the term cultural competence, most often found within the healthcare industry. Following are a few different definitions in regards to cultural competence:

Cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures. Cultural competence is comprised of four components:

a. an awareness of one’s own cultural worldview

b. attitude towards cultural differences

c. knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews

d. cross-cultural skills

Cultural competence requires that organizations have a defined set of values and principles, and demonstrate behaviors, attitudes, policies, and structures that enable them to work effectively cross-culturally.

Join us as we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month—a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated with community festivals, government-sponsored activities, and educational activities for students. Girl Scouts are proud to promote awareness of and appreciation for different cultures.

This year, GSUSA will commemorate APA Heritage Month on the corporate website with a landing page that will feature a video clip of Korean-American MTV News correspondent, Su Chin Pak, who recently signed-on as an official Girl Scouts spokesperson. The page will also highlight LEADER magazine’s June cover-girl, Lisa Ling. STUDIO2B and GoGirlsOnly will also host content with features on one of our Young Women of Distinction, Asian-American troops and more.

Organizations around the country are celebrating APA Heritage Month by holding events and gatherings. We encourage all of our members to participate at APA Heritage Month events in our area, and let the community know about membership opportunities through the Girl Scout experience!