Community organizations are becoming change agents by promoting culturally competent health care for the Hmong community. 

The Hmong Health Project began in 2004 as a response to an immediate need: 6,000 Hmong Refugees would be coming to the Central Valley from a refugee camp in Thailand, where they had been raising their families since the end of the war in Vietnam.

Hmong-serving community organizations in the Central Valley realized they could implement lessons-learned from previous waves of resettlement by working together. With funding from The California Endowment, these organizations identified best practices and emerging issues and organized a coordinated, collaborative approach to help these refugees make a safe, healthy and successful start in the United States.

Valley Vision acted as a facilitator for this effort, enabling the discussions, interactions and networking needed to respond to the complex needs of the newly-arriving refugees.

The Collaborative’s success in organizing and advocating for new refugees has prompted it to refocus on a broader long-term goal: creating lasting changes in health systems that will benefit the entire Hmong community. By working together on research, planning, organizing and outreach to policy makers and health care providers, the Collaborative is working to:

• Improve access to Hmong-language health services;
• Assist health-care providers in becoming more culturally competent in providing care to the Hmong;
• Increase Hmong representation in the healthcare workforce; and
• Organize the Hmong community educate policy makers about their health needs. 

A special thanks goes to The California Endowment for recognizing the potential these united community organizations have to create long-term change.

Funder
The California Endowment

Partners

Fresno
Central California Legal Services/Fresno Health Consumer Center
Fresno Center for New Americans
Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries, Inc.

Merced
Healthy House Within a MATCH Coalition
Merced Lao Family Community, Inc.

Stockton
Stockton Lao Family Community, Inc.

Sacramento
Health Rights Hotline
Hmong Women's Heritage Association
Sacramento Lao Family Community, Inc.
Southeast Asian Assistance Center