Learning to listen: crossing ethnic lines to deliver therapeutic recreation services. (Therapeutic Recreation).

Therapeutic recreation organizations, training institutions and certifying bodies should require cross-ethnic understanding in their curriculums and professional organizations.

In a powerful story, the Cree scholar Alexandra Wilson disclosed her experiences as a Native American woman visiting museums that depict the history of differing Native-American people. During a visit to The Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg, Canada, Wilson explained how the museum guide's story about Weesageychak was different from how her father would tell it:

   Here I stood, positioned between caricature and history, listening to that
   same story told in the earnest, abridged language of an anthropology
   student ... The name sounded strange in his mouth, with the uncomfortable
   pronunciation of a foreign word, his emphasis on all the wrong syllables. I
   was sure that Weesageychak, herself, himself, was giggling with me.

After reflection Wilson asked why museum patrons prefer to learn about Native culture via wax casts as opposed to interacting with real Native American people. Her answer was poignant -- none of the patrons would take the time to listen.

Recent scholarship regarding cross-ethnic understanding in therapeutic recreation, including studies by Peregoy, Schliebner and the author, as well as more recent research from Sylvester, Voelkl and Ellis, suggests that some therapeutic recreation professionals may not take the time to listen and understand people from differing ethnic cultures. Learning to listen and understand ethnic perspectives is important because cross-ethnic sensitivity can enhance services, while insensitivity can cause harm. Yet therapeutic recreation specialists are not solely to blame. Therapeutic recreation organizations, training institutions and certifying bodies should require cross-ethnic understanding in their curriculums and professional organizations.

System Directed Service Delivery

This type of strategy is described by researchers Schram and Mandell as those aimed at helping people with special needs by creating or improving the organizations that provide services to them. To this end, change agents are people who use their skills to bring about change in agencies or social settings, either alone or in concert with others. In contrast to system-directed change, person-directed change occurs when individuals make personal adjustments so that certain goals, ambitions, desires or needs can be accomplished. Some therapeutic recreation scholars have argued for an ecological and system-directed perspective to therapeutic recreation service delivery.

System-directed change, suggest Schram and Mandell, can be generated from the "top down" and from "the bottom up." When it starts from the top, it usually comes via administrative or legislative measures. For example, a board of directors might announce a new policy such as developing a formal administrative ethnic action plan with annual cultural audits. To this end, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which is a civil rights law intended to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities by guaranteeing equal opportunities, (including recreation and leisure opportunities) was a system-directed change. When system-directed change starts from the bottom, people force change through the weight of their numbers and the powers that weight can mobilize. For example, the Turner Syndrome Society of the United States, a non-profit organization founded in 1987 by a group of individuals concerned about Turner's syndrome, has increased public awareness, understanding and positive change for females with Turner's syndrome (see www.turner-syndrome-us.org/about).

Find the Approach that Works

Various models work for various populations. There are a number of approaches to review when looking for one that works for your community. Combining approaches is often a good option.

The Bridging Approach: A bridging approach occurs when a mainstream therapeutic recreation agency hires therapeutic recreation practitioners who represent or have specialized training toward specific ethnic minority cultures. To this end, a therapeutic recreation agency would need to develop an anti-discriminatory philosophy in its organization framework. According to scholar Allison, such a framework ought to include:

* Contributions and interests of various ethnic groups in mission and service delivery

* Diverse input and empowerment throughout the organization; boundaries between management, staff and clients disappear or take on differing dimensions

* An organization that is equitable, responsive and accessible at all levels

* Ongoing evaluation of success and failure with feedback from diverse groups.

The Multicultural Agency Approach: A multicultural agency approach purposely serves the multitude of people from differing ethnic minority groups while providing little or no service aimed solely at the dominant culture groups. Although there are different and creative ways to organize a multicultural agency, here are two suggestions. First, a multicultural agency can hire therapeutic recreation specialists with expertise aligned to specific ethnic minority groups. Or, as suggested by Peregoy and Deiser, the organization can hire a therapeutic recreation specialist who has a solid background in "generic" therapeutic recreation multi-cultural competencies.

The Ethnic Community Organizations Approach: Ethnic community organizations serve their own community members. That is to say, such an agency provides services and resources that parallel mainstream agencies, but focus on a specific ethnic group. For example, the Coalition for Healthy Korean Americans (www.cohka.org)provides therapeutic recreation services for Korean-Americans while the National Alliance for Hispanic Health (www.hispanichealth.org) provides therapeutic recreation practice for Hispanic Americans.

Depending on how an ethnic community organization is constructed, according to researchers Edgington, Hanson and Hudson, therapeutic recreation services can reflect a community development or a social action model of programming. Within leisure and therapeutic recreation programming, community development suggests that groups can implement their own services based on their perception of their own needs. Likewise, social action programming shifts power and resources to underrepresented population groups in the cause of social justice.

The Partnership Model Approach: A partnership model works with one or more mainstream organizations developing partnerships with differing ethnic agencies, thereby drawing on the special qualities and expertise of both sectors to better serve ethnic minority people. These partnerships with ethnic agencies need not be restrained or restricted to special programs, but can encompass routine services in both mainstream and ethnic agencies. Herberg and Herberg write, "Most ethnic agencies are pleased to meet requests to help train mainstream agency's workers in the principles and intricacies of working with clients from their communities. In exchange, mainstream consultants and educators may help to upgrade the skills of some service providers at the ethnic agencies, who are sometimes undereducated."

If therapeutic recreation specialists and organizations want to provide meaningful services and programs to people who are from ethnic minority backgrounds, they need to take the time to make system-directed changes. Likewise, they need to listen to and learn from ethnic minority perspectives. Developing logical, relevant and more accurate linkages between these ethnic-oriented approaches and differing therapeutic recreation practice models would be a step towards cross-ethnic therapeutic recreation service delivery.

LISTENING AND INTERACTING IDEAS HELP CROSS-ETHNIC CHANGE TO OCCUR

What to Do on an Individual Level Deiser and Peregoy suggest:

* Fieldtrips and bicultural observations of ethnic communities

* Role playing and role reversals with members from ethnic minority cultures

* Panel or individual discussions with ethnic minority professional

* Self-guided and classroom learning regarding ethnic diversity

* Critical incident and case study workshops

* Immersion in an ethnic culture

What to Do on a System-Wide Level

From both Allison and Dahl come these tips:

* Explicitly articulate ethnic diversity in your mission statement

* Reinforce values of diversity in rewards and appraisal processes

* Develop ethnic diversity committee groups

* Develop a formal ethnic diversity action plan at the administrative level

* Hire and promote people from various ethnic backgrounds or people who have multicultural skills

* Support educational programs for staff oriented towards ethnic diversity

* Implement flexible work arrangements related to cultural backgrounds

* Develop a task force on ethnic diversity

* Implement organizational cultural audits

Therapeutic Recreation Service Delivery

The field of therapeutic recreation currently has several delivery and practice models being followed by practitioners throughout the country. A brief synopsis of these practice models, based largely on the work of noted researchers Herberg and Herberg and Matsvoka and Sorenson, includes:

* The Leisure Ability Model -- emphasizing the importance of an independent leisure lifestyle

* The Health Protection/Health Promotion Model -- bases optimal health upon self-actualization

* The Therapeutic Recreation Service Delivery and Therapeutic Recreation Outcome Model -- focuses on quality of life

* The Self-Determination and Enjoyment Enhancement Model -- concepts of flow, self-determination and enjoyment

* The Optimizing Lifelong Health Through Therapeutic Recreation Model -- concepts premised upon self-empowerment health

* The Aristotelian Good Life Model -- develops leisure and meaning in life

Although these practice models are different, scholars Peregoy and Deiser, and Sylvester, Voelkl and Ellis, have suggested that none of them is attuned to cross-ethnic understanding. The following suggests four cross-ethnic system-directed approaches to therapeutic recreation service delivery.

HOW TO LISTEN

* Bridging

Hire therapeutic recreation specialists from a variety of cultures or who have specialized training in ethnic minority culture.

* Multicultural

Have a mission to purposely serve a multitude of differing minority groups and provide no services or programs that focus solely on dominant cultural groups.

* Ethnic Community Organization

Provide therapeutic recreation services to members of their ethnic minority community.

* Find Partners

Develop partnerships with various ethnic agencies to utilize the special qualities and expertise of all sectors to serve ethnic minority people.

Selected References

Allison, M. T. (2000). Diversity in Organizational Perspectives. In M. T. Allison & I. E. Schneider (Eds.), Diversity and the Recreation Profession: Organizational Perspectives (pp. 3-16). State College, PA: Venture.

Dahl, R. F. (2000). Intercultural Dynamics and Organizational Models for Change. In M. A. Allison & I. E. Schneider (Eds.), Diversity and the Recreation Profession: Organizational Perspectives (pp. 225-234). State College, PA: Venture

Herberg, C., & Herberg, E. N. (1995). Canada's Ethno-Racial Diversity: Policies and Programs for Canadian Social Welfare. In J. C. Turner & F. J. Turner (Eds.), Canadian Social Welfare (3rd ed.). (pp. 165-178). Scarborough, ON: Allyn & Bacon Canada.

Peregoy, J. J., Schliebner, C., & Dieser, R. (1997). Diversity Issues in Therapeutic Recreation. In D. M. Compton (Ed.), Issues in Therapeutic Recreation: Toward the New Millennium (3rd ed.) (pp. 275-298). Champaign, IL: Sagamore.

Schram, B., & Mandell, B. R. (2000). An Introduction to Human Services: Policy and Practice (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Sylvester, C., Voelkl, J. E. & Ellis, G. D. (2001). Therapeutic Recreation Programming: Theory and Practice. State College, PA: Venture.

Wilson, A. (1998). How Our Stories are Told. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 22(2), 51-55.

References not located in the selected reference list can be located by linking to NRPA website or contacting the first author at [e-mail].

Rodney B. Dieser, Ph.D, and Joseph Wilson, Ph.D., are the authors of "Learning to Listen: Cross Ethnic Lines to Deliver Therapeutic Recreation Services" on page 54. Both are assistant professors in the School of Health, Physical Education and Leisure Services at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.