Home : Project : Culture Brokering :
What is culture brokering? How does the process work?
"Culture brokering" is a systematic way to analyze the role culture plays in an individual or family's experiences with disability services. Culture brokering gives professionals the tools to assess cultural factors so they can work more productively with clients from diverse backgrounds. Initially developed by Mary Ann Jezewski, the cultural brokering model for the health field can help bridge the gap between foreign-born consumers and the disability service system. Dr. Hasnain and Ms. Sotnik adopted this model as a framework for professionals in the rehabilitation and disability arenas.
The workshop is useful for disability agencies, health providers, government, higher education institutions, and rehabilitation service providers, who will learn to:
- Identify and analyze the unique cultural characteristics of foreign-born people and the ways that culture affects their use of disability services.
- Understand the disability system as its own culture with values and beliefs that influence services.
- Define the disability-related roles of traditional and nontraditional entities--including state agencies, community-based cultural groups, non-governmental organizations, faith-based institutions, and schools.
- Learn to apply the cultural brokering model and its strategies in your own work
The culture brokering workshop was developed by Dr. Hasnain and Ms. Sotnik at ICI and the Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange with funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research/U.S. Department of Education. It has been presented nationally and internationally and used successfully by many rehabilitation professionals.
