This monograph was developed to assist states and communities in planning, designing, and implementing culturally competent systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbances. It highlights the culturally competent aspects of 11 programs serving people of color. Each program targets at least one of the four major ethnic minority groups in the United States and involves cooperative services from more than one system. The programs were identified as a result of a nationwide survey and site visits. Chapter I presents background information including the changing demographics of the United States and principles of cultural competence. Chapter II focuses on six basic questions such as who defines mental health and illness, accessibility of mental health services to ethnic minorities, intervention methods, and evaluation of outcomes. Other issues examined include program philosophy and policies, program location, types of services offered, cultural assessments, ethnic-specific staffing patterns, service linkages, and treatment goals and evaluation. Chapter III summarizes critical aspects of the cultural competency model. Chapter IV contains the program descriptions of the 11 programs. For each program, the following information is presented: a history and identification of the agency, a community description, the target population, program philosophy and goals, type of services, funding strategies, evaluation mechanisms, and how cultural competence principles are addressed. Appendices provide administrative forms, profiles of programs/agencies not site visited, a list of participating agencies, and a list of faculty of the Culturally Competent Training Institute. (80 references) (DB)