Advocate Community Assessment Diversity, Equality, & Cultural Competency
Diversity, Equality, & Cultural Competency
The news of recent years has been peppered with stories of globalization and a shrinking world as technology, communications, and travel bring diverse economies, peoples, and ideas together. These phenomena affect communities as historically separated populations begin living together. Ottawa County has experienced such diversification in recent decades. According to the United States Census Bureau, the demographics of the county changed dramatically from 1990 to 2000. In 1990, Ottawa County was 96 percent White, 2 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent Asian. Ten years later, those numbers shifted to 89 percent White, 7 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent Asian. In that decade, the Hispanic population grew by over 300 percent, and the Asian community more than doubled.
