Diversity Summit: Keynote Speaker Yolanda Cuesta

Yolanda Cuesta was the first keynote speaker at the Diversity Summit in Glenwood Springs this July. Her presentation was entitled It’s all about relationships and trust: Principles for long term success in serving diverse communities.
Ms. Cuesta described three major principles that are integral to serving diverse communities. The principles are below with a very brief summary for each:
1. Know your community: Learn about their work and leisure time, learn the demographics, learn who is important in the community. With immigrant communities it is important to find out what state/region (in addition to their country of origin) to better understand this group.
Conduct community interviews with prominent members of the community you serve. This will often require moving beyond library patrons. It is up to us to start the conversation with these leaders to better understand the community’s needs. This will also assist in positive word of mouth in the community.
2. Figure out how to connect with patrons’ lives: We often assume that people understand libraries and we may miss barriers of past experiences for those in the community. One way to overcome barriers could be through promoting programming that will interest the community (i.e., build on the international popularity of soccer, especially during the World Cup).
3. Respect & Value Cultures: We should understand our own culture when attempting to understand the culture of others. Through understanding our own culture, we will better see how our cultural outlook may shade or influence our understanding of others.
Again, this is a very brief overview of the speech (feel free to comment with augmentations or questions!).
To learn more about Yolanda Cuesta’s insights and strategies, check out her chapter Developing Outreach Skills in Library Staff in the ALA Editions book "From Outreach to Equity".