Introduction and Background

There are 159,773 Asian American Pacific Islander’s (AAPI) living in the State of Ohio (2000 U.S. Census); it is estimated that 16,000 of them are living with Hepatitis B. Linguistically and culturally relevant resources and services are not readily available and vary from region to region. Thus many isolated AAPI ethnic communities are not aware of the full health impact of the disease. Additionally, the communities in Ohio are widely dispersed across the state, and are not afforded the benefits of or access to centralized health resources .

B Strong will identify, gather, and inventory local Hepatitis B resources to develop a statewide directory and translate it into languages in key Asian ethnic communities.

To take the individual participant survey,  click here:

April 3, 2010

1:00pm to 4:00pm

at

 SunFlower Restaurant

7370 Sawmill Road

Columbus, Ohio 43235

National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)

PURPOSE

Asian American communities in Ohio have had limited experience interacting with their state representatives, senators and other policymakers.  Therefore, our communities are considered “beginners” when it comes to advocacy.  

The HTA program does not allow us to lobby or advocate for specific legislation or bill.    The purpose of the Advocacy Training is to prepare the participants for the upcoming Legislative Day in June 8, 2010.  

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On January 22, 2010, the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies released The State of Poverty in Ohio: Building a Foundation for Prosperity, prepared by Community Partners. This annual report provides an update on the evolving extent and characteristics of poverty across the state and the needs and conditions of populations and communities related to issues of poverty. It also highlights innovations of Community Action Agencies and recommendations from the Ohio Anti-Poverty Task Force to address poverty. The report includes data for Ohio, Economic Development Regions, and counties.

The full report is available online at www.communityresearchpartners.org!

Followup to Local Conversations I held in June 2008 will be taking place  Columbus, Ohio in the month of December. Recommendations collected through Community Conversations will be prioritized in this session. Your participation will add value to what we are trying to accomplish in the Asian community. The final document will become part of National Blueprint for Action.

Date:  December 5,  2009

Place: Fawcett Center 

Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm

Room: Hancock Room

Link to take to Survey prior to December 5th meeting:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lCIW7HupPW1hwKmjO3kNzw_3d_3d

Thank you

Obama’s Executive Order Aims to Aid Asian Americans
Wednesday, October 14 2009

During George W. Bush’s presidency, an executive order passed by the Clinton administration that addressed the concerns of the Asian American community expired. But on October 14, President Barack Obama restored the federal panel by signing an executive order that re-established the White House Advisory Commission and Interagency Working Group, which aims to aid Asian Americans. In the executive order , Obama set up a commission comprised of numerous governmental agencies to conduct a two-year study on how to better serve Asian Americans. According to the Pacific News Center , the order aims to increase Asian American and Pacific Islander participation in a full range of federal programs, including health care, human services, housing, education, labor, transportation and economic and community development. The initiative and commission will be co-chaired by Secretaries Arne Duncan and Gary Locke,
and will be housed in the Department of Education. The executive order emphasized the contributions that the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have made over the years in the United States. Obama lauded a great variety of contributions, ranging from musical achievements to military service. However, Obama stressed that those contributions don’t tell the whole story, and must be weighed against the struggles the communities still face.He cautioned his audience from falling into the “model minority” myth, in which the strengths overshadow the challenges that are still against the community. In particular, he pointed out that some communities, especially those made up mainly of recent immigrants, like those of Hmong, Cambodian, and Malaysian descent, suffer high rates of poverty and lack health insurance. In the order, Obama listed problems that continue to plague the Asian American community, such as language barriers, hate crimes, and health disparities, such as high rates of diabetes and hepatitis B. One of the problems in studying these health disparities is the tendency to lump Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders into one category, which makes it impossible to study specific data from each community. “When any of our citizens are unable to fulfill their potential due to factors that have nothing to do with their talent, character, or work ethic, then I believe there’s a role for our government to play,” said Obama in the executive order. According to Obama, the mission of the initiative is to work with the 23 government agencies across the board to ameliorate the specific problems facing the Asian American community.