Enhancing Cross-Cultural Competence and Inclusive Practices at March Funeral Home

Enhancing Cross-Cultural Competence and Inclusive Practices at March Funeral Home

Executive Summary

March Funeral Home is a well-established institution that serves diverse communities in the region. However, recent feedback from client families has highlighted the need to strengthen the organization’s cross-cultural competence and inclusive practices (Whitestone et al., 2020). The information in this proposal outlines a comprehensive plan to provide cultural sensitivity training for staff, develop inclusive policies and procedures, and implement community outreach initiatives to enhance the funeral home’s ability to offer culturally sensitive services. A relatively minor expenditure will be incurred to yield significant benefits.

Introduction

March Funeral Home has proudly served families in the region for over 50 years. Notably, this has earned the institution a reputation for professionalism, compassion, and a deep understanding of the community’s needs. According to Beard and Burger (2017), cultural traditions and rituals are integral to grieving. The institution should seek to improve handling these aspects for better success. The community in the region has increasingly turned diverse, making it critical that the funeral home’s practices and service offerings evolve (Rumbold et al., 2020). Essentially, this will ensure that the facility’s services are inclusive and responsive to the needs of all diverse stakeholders.

Background, problem, and purpose

March Funeral Home serves a community that is defined by different aspects. The aspects are primarily based on demography, and have changed (Hoy, 2022). For instance, the population in the region served by the institution has grown through the entrance of new minority groups, immigrants and the birth of new children. Notably, these groups bear diverse needs that the facility should consider to better serve them. Still, the facility has room for improvement across three major dimensions.

First, funeral directors and supporting personnel may not always have a comprehensive understanding of the cultural diversity surrounding bereavement, which can lead to inadvertent insensitivities. Further, it may result in the inability to provide fully customized services (Beebeejaun et al., 2021). Second, the funeral home’s existing policies and procedures may not adequately address the diverse needs of all stakeholders. Lastly, March Funeral Home has not strategically engaged with local minority and immigrant communities to understand their unique needs and serve them accordingly. This proposal seeks to address these gaps and enhance March Funeral Home’s ability to better serve the community’s evolving needs.

Proposal Plan and Schedule

To achieve the desired objectives, this proposal outlines the following key aspects:

Cross-Cultural Competence Training

Offer training to enhance the comprehension of cultural diversity and bereavement-related issues to funeral home stakeholders.

Development of Inclusive Policies and Procedures

Review the funeral home’s existing policies and procedures to ensure they are inclusive and accessible to clients from diverse backgrounds.

Community Outreach and Engagement

Develop and implement a strategic approach to create associations with local minority and immigrant communities.

A timeline of six months will be observed. In the first three months, cultural competence training, policy review, and updates will take place. In the last three months, the community outreach program will be conducted.

Staffing

The funeral home director will oversee the implementation of this proposal and guide the staff below.

Personnel	Responsibility
Training Coordinator	Responsible for organizing and facilitating the cross-cultural competence training program
Policy review team	Consisting of the Funeral Home Director, administrative staff, and legal counsel, this team will be responsible for reviewing and updating the funeral home’s policies and procedures.
Community outreach coordinator	Tasked with developing and executing the community engagement strategy

Budget

Particulars	Amount in $
Cross-cultural competence training	15,000
Policy review and updates	8,000
Community outreach program	12,000
Total Estimation	35,000

Authorization

I respectfully submit this formal proposal for your consideration and approval.

Works Cited

Beard, V. R., & Burger, W. C. (2017). Selling in a dying business: An analysis of trends during a period of major market transition in the funeral industry. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 80(4), 544–567. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222817745430

Beebeejaun, Y., McClymont, K., Maddrell, A., Mathijssen, B., & McNally, D. (2021). Death in the peripheries: Planning for minority ethnic groups beyond “The city.” Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456×211043275

Hoy, W. G. (2022). Do funerals matter?: The purposes and practices of death rituals in Global Perspective. Routledge.

Rumbold, B., Lowe, J., & Aoun, S. M. (2020). The evolving landscape: Funerals, cemeteries, memorialization, and bereavement support. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 84(2), 596–616. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222820904877

Whitestone, S. B., Giles, H., & Linz, D. (2020). Overcoming ungrievability: Transgender expectations for identity after death. Sociological Inquiry, 90(2), 316–338. https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12357

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We’ll write everything from scratch

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Overview

Goal

The goal of this assignment is to have students demonstrate that they can compose a formal, unsolicited proposal, representing their real-world companies.

Project Scope

You must imagine a situation / scenario applicable to your industry in which you see a problem regarding a cross-cultural, ethical, or legal issue.  You need to write a formal, unsolicited proposal, discussing a relatively weighty problem that can be lessened or eliminated with a minor expenditure.

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