What is Cultural Competence?

What is Cultural Competence?
There are many academic definitions of cultural competence. Practically, at a personal level, cultural competence is the ability to interact comfortably, and communicate effectively, with people from a wide range of ethnic/cultural and linguistic backgrounds, some of whom may look and/or sound seriously different from you. At an organizational level, cultural competence requires policies and systems that support and facilitate individual cultural competence. At both levels, cultural competence is an ongoing process. There is no final destination to reach. Values, skills and knowledge will, ideally, just continue to grow.