Cultural Intelligence · Practice

Using Community Briefs Well: Questions, Not Descriptions

Use the program's Minnesota community briefs to ask better questions, plan access with people and partners, and avoid profiling in intake, oversight and communications.

About 48 minutes, plus optional practice · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning

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Course outline

What a community brief is for: questions, not predictions
Explain the purpose of the program's Minnesota community briefs as starting points for respectful inquiry.
12 minutes
Intake and case work: ask the person, collect only what you need
Plan access decisions, including language, interpreter, format, timing, setting, technology and trusted messenger, with the person rather than for them.
12 minutes
Program integrity and communications: avoiding profiling at scale
Identify how community-level patterns can become profiling when used to target oversight or review.
12 minutes
Working with community partners and cultural brokers
Describe the roles cultural brokers can play, such as liaison, cultural guide, mediator and catalyst for change.
12 minutes

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What you’ll be able to do

Explore and practice

Explain the purpose of the program's Minnesota community briefs as starting points for respectful inquiry.
Plan access decisions, including language, interpreter, format, timing, setting, technology and trusted messenger, with the person rather than for them.
Identify how community-level patterns can become profiling when used to target oversight or review.
Describe the roles cultural brokers can play, such as liaison, cultural guide, mediator and catalyst for change.

What you can take into your work

Explain the distinction tested in each knowledge check.
Compare the responses to each fictional case and the reasons behind them.
Complete the course job aid for a situation you choose.

Before your next request to a community partner, write a short note covering: the decision, what you need, the deadline, how input will be used and credited, compensation if available, and when you will report back.

Using Community Briefs Well: Questions, Not Descriptions: practice guide

A reusable guide for a situation you choose

Use the program's Minnesota community briefs to ask better questions, plan access with people and partners, and avoid profiling in intake, oversight and communications.

Use observable details rather than assigning motives.
Invite perspectives without requiring personal disclosure.
Keep learning separate from individual assessment or personnel decisions.

Before you use a brief

Check the date and original source of any figure.
Note sections marked pending review and treat them as open questions.
Rewrite key statements as questions for the person or a partner.
Remember that differences within the community may be larger than differences between communities.

At intake and in case work

Ask every person the same core access questions about language, interpreter, format, timing, setting, technology and who to involve.
Plan from the person's answers, not from a surname or presumed community.
Collect only data the program requires and give the required notice for private data.
Do not ask about immigration status, faith or migration history unless the program requires it.
Never ask anyone to retell trauma.

In oversight, communications and partnership

Base review criteria on conduct and data applied to everyone; take civil rights questions to EOAD and legal counsel.
Use briefs to shape questions for partners, not public descriptions of a community.
Make requests to partners specific, compensated where possible, credited as they wish and reported back.
Send feedback about outdated or incorrect briefs to the program team.
Use government-to-government consultation for matters involving Tribal nations.

Try the guide and revisit it

Before your next request to a community partner, write a short note covering: the decision, what you need, the deadline, how input will be used and credited, compensation if available, and when you will report back.
Think of the last time you asked a community partner or colleague for cultural insight. What did they get in return, and did they hear how their input was used?

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.

Sources and further reading

Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence — Foundations of Cultural and Linguistic Competence: Conceptual Frameworks
Definition of cultural competence and the five organizational capacities, including acquiring and institutionalizing cultural knowledge and adapting to communities served. Supports the framing of briefs as one element among several.
Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence — Bridging the Cultural Divide in Health Care Settings: The Essential Role of Cultural Broker Programs (2004)
Definitions of cultural brokering and cultural brokers and the roles of liaison, cultural guide, mediator and catalyst for change. Written for health care; applied here to human services partnership.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Think Cultural Health — National CLAS Standards
Standards on language assistance at no cost, demographic data, community assessment and partnering with communities. The standards are framed for health and health care organizations; the DHS Equity Policy incorporates them.
Minnesota State Demographic Center — Immigration and Language
Notes that immigrant population figures rely mainly on the American Community Survey, have margins of error and likely undercount immigrant populations. Supports checking the date and source of figures in briefs.
Minnesota Department of Human Services — Equity Policy (2023)
Department expectations for authentic, ongoing community engagement, CLAS standards in everyday work, and language access.
Minnesota Revisor of Statutes — Minnesota Statutes section 13.04 (Rights of subjects of data)
Subdivision 2 sets out the notice required when an individual is asked for private or confidential data. Specific application belongs to data practices staff and legal counsel.
Minnesota Revisor of Statutes — Minnesota Statutes section 13.05 (Duties of responsible authority)
Subdivision 3 limits collection and storage of data on individuals to what is necessary for authorized programs. Supports collecting only what a program requires.

All research and sources across the program

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Course outline

What a community brief is for: questions, not predictions

Explain the purpose of the program's Minnesota community briefs as starting points for respectful inquiry.

12 minutes

Intake and case work: ask the person, collect only what you need

Plan access decisions, including language, interpreter, format, timing, setting, technology and trusted messenger, with the person rather than for them.

12 minutes

Program integrity and communications: avoiding profiling at scale

Identify how community-level patterns can become profiling when used to target oversight or review.

12 minutes

Working with community partners and cultural brokers

Describe the roles cultural brokers can play, such as liaison, cultural guide, mediator and catalyst for change.

12 minutes

Sources and further reading

Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence — Foundations of Cultural and Linguistic Competence: Conceptual Frameworks

Definition of cultural competence and the five organizational capacities, including acquiring and institutionalizing cultural knowledge and adapting to communities served. Supports the framing of briefs as one element among several.

Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence — Bridging the Cultural Divide in Health Care Settings: The Essential Role of Cultural Broker Programs (2004)

Definitions of cultural brokering and cultural brokers and the roles of liaison, cultural guide, mediator and catalyst for change. Written for health care; applied here to human services partnership.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Think Cultural Health — National CLAS Standards

Standards on language assistance at no cost, demographic data, community assessment and partnering with communities. The standards are framed for health and health care organizations; the DHS Equity Policy incorporates them.

Minnesota State Demographic Center — Immigration and Language

Notes that immigrant population figures rely mainly on the American Community Survey, have margins of error and likely undercount immigrant populations. Supports checking the date and source of figures in briefs.

Minnesota Department of Human Services — Equity Policy (2023)

Department expectations for authentic, ongoing community engagement, CLAS standards in everyday work, and language access.

Minnesota Revisor of Statutes — Minnesota Statutes section 13.04 (Rights of subjects of data)

Subdivision 2 sets out the notice required when an individual is asked for private or confidential data. Specific application belongs to data practices staff and legal counsel.

Minnesota Revisor of Statutes — Minnesota Statutes section 13.05 (Duties of responsible authority)

Subdivision 3 limits collection and storage of data on individuals to what is necessary for authorized programs. Supports collecting only what a program requires.