Cross-Cultural Program Development and Evaluation

All three of Counterparts' principals speak Spanish. Two are bilingual/bicultural from birth. Their linguistic and cross-cultural skills enrich our organization's perspectives and products. Our ability to operate equally well in spoken and written Spanish or English allows us to:

  • Conduct interviews in both languages
  • Analyze written materials
  • Develop documents and programs
  • Offer training and create training materials
  • Evaluate cross-cultural programs

Examples of Counterparts' bilingual work include:

National Projects:

Evaluating a National Technical Assistance Center for Latinos:
Counterparts conducted interviews with Spanish-speaking professionals and service users in order to evaluate a five-year national pilot initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The National Technical Assistance Center for Latinos with Disabilities, called "Proyecto Visión," is run by the World Institute on Disability (WID), a leading national advocacy NGO. Counterparts spoke with service providers and Latinos around the country, analyzed data in both languages, and created a final report submitted to WID in 2007.

Providing Cross-Cultural Training to Native Americans:
Counterparts has led training workshops for Native American staff who provide social services to the Navajo Nation. Some of the training participants are monolingual Navajo speakers while others speak English only. In a separate project, Counterparts worked with the Hopi Tribal Council to improve communication, teamwork, and long-term planning within the program areas under the Council's jurisdiction such as water, property management, and social services.

Organizing a National Conference of Minority "Voices":
The U.S. National Council on Disability (NCD) is the smallest U.S. government agency. Its 15 members are appointed by the President and Congress of the U.S. to advise our government on disability policy. In 2003, Counterparts helped NCD bring to Washington, DC, advocates from minority populations—Native Americans, Asian-Pacific Islanders, Latinos, and other sub-groups—to advise NCD on how the government should outreach to these populations when providing legally mandated services under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Promising practices were shared in an effort to build the capacity of federal agencies to integrate into their agendas the issues that affect people with disabilities from diverse cultures. Counterparts helped select participants, prepared the agenda, worked with speakers, organized assistive technologies (sign language, Braille, etc.), oversaw the meeting, and documented its outcomes.

Developing a Multi-Agency, Cross-Cultural Plan for Immigrant Children:
Given an influx in the 1990s of Asian and Latino immigrants seeking jobs in Montgomery County, MD, the County Council in 1991 mandated that public and private social service agencies combine the education, health, mental health, and recreation services that support these families. To bring about this collaboration, Counterparts was hired to lead a multi-agency planning process that resulted in the development of a seven-year plan for delivering social services to immigrant families, many of whom do not speak English. The County Council funded this plan, and then, when the seven years were almost up, Counterparts was brought back to update the cross-agency, cross-cultural planning process, which has now been funded through 2013.

Inter-generational Latina Women's Project:
Under the auspices of Drew University, Counterparts conducted small focus groups of Latina women to talk about sex education within Latino families and culture. This study brought together two and sometimes three generations of women, in many cases from one family, to discuss their personal exposure to knowledge about sex as well as how they transfer this knowledge to their daughters. Counterparts led the discussion groups, sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in a mixture of Spanish and English, surfaced trends, and documented changes from one generation to another.

International Projects:

Providing Conference-Management and Language-Translation Services in Latin America:
Since 1996, Counterparts has served as the connector to Latin American delegations attending the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' biennial international conferences on disabilities. Counterparts has provided translation services for conference participants, developed materials in Spanish, and when the Congress took place in Argentina in 2000, Counterparts negotiated contracts in Spanish and served as a major connector to the hotel and to conference-support services for hundreds of attendees from multiple Spanish-speaking countries.

Helping Indigenous Groups "Voice" their Interests:
A missing voice at many cross-cultural conferences is that of Indigenous peoples. Counterparts made sure that Indigenous peoples from several countries had a presence and voice at the Multi-National Congresses for Young People with Disabilities held 1998-2006 in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, and Norway. Hopi & Navajo tribal representatives came from the U.S., a Sisika team joined from Canada. Zapotec representatives traveled from Mexico, Mapuche representatives came from Argentina and Chile, and Sámi representatives took part in Norway's program. Counterparts helped find funding for these delegations, found places for them on the full-conference agendas, and facilitated dialogue among Indigenous teams during multi-national discussions.