Healthy Communities
Hmong American Health Equity Campaign
The 21 Collective launched in 2021 to address the thorniest issues that hold communities back from thriving. One of those issues is the persistent health disparities gap that plagues marginalized and immigrant communities. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing health disparities among Asian Americans across the United States. In particular, the Hmong American community was disproportionately impacted resulting in suffering and unnecessary death. Hmong Americans have higher rates of cancer and diabetes, live in multi-generational households, have lower educational attainment and are economically disadvantaged- all factors uniquely concerning on their own. Combined, these factors created a situation where already glaring health and wellness disparities are exacerbated, resulting in disproportionate rates of infection and mortality without proper resources and mass vaccination.
The Health Equity Campaign implemented an outreach effort to collect information from Hmong Minnesotans regarding the perceptions and impact of Covid, to understand who they trust to provide factual information and where they get their Covid information from, and their perceptions on how vaccination programs were executed. In order to activate communities to adopt important behavior changes that lead to improved health and wellness, the community needs to come together to ensure infrastructure, resources and information are being delivered in meaningful ways.
Watch program manager, Yee Chang, talk with 3HmongTV about the Hmong Health Equity report.
A Local Framework for Social Change
It doesn’t have to be complicated or earth shattering but you do have to believe in something enough to give it the magic necessary to change lives. If you can dream of the world that you want to create, we can make it happen together.
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A Change Mandate.
A demand for change from the community, galvanizing the public to make change happen and resulting in action.
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Resources Spent.
Invest in resource delivery mechanisms that are meaningful and accessible to the community.
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Easy Access Points.
Ensure that there are points of access in the community tailored to the unique cultural and social components of the community.
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Trusted Messengers.
Identify trusted messengers who will provide factual information through various platforms.
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Tailored Messages.
Understand community-specific context and create solutions that are inclusive of information delivered in the community with embedded cultural context.
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Endured Habits.
Community adopts behavior and belief changes resulting in sustained engagement and action.
Covid Perceptions Among Hmong Minnesotans.
Over the course of five months, a bilingual team of callers embarked on a quest to reach as many Hmong households in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota as possible. The charge was to survey families on their perceptions and experiences with Covid. The technical data can be downloaded below.