Strengthening Regional Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Collaboratives through a Statewide Framework

BACKGROUND: Mid- to small- size Asian and Pacific Islander communities across the country face unique challenges. Communities, especially in Midwest states are geographically fragmented, they are smaller in population relative to other racial groups in their region, and they also have limited access to health and human services that are greatly afforded to their counterparts in larger cities (e.g. ethnic enclaves which concentrate businesses, social service agencies, schools, etc.). These challenges become more acute when it comes to organizing around grassroots health policy change.

OBJECTIVE: The creation of the Ohio Asian American Health Coalition as a possible strategy to organize effectively around grassroots health policy change (e.g. hepatitis B).

METHOD: To work with six pan-Asian organizations who represent six different regions in the State of Ohio. To provide capacity-building assistance and to facilitate a "learning community".

RESULTS: Annually organize statewide media campaign for World Hepatitis Day; helped change administrative guidelines to ensure API are included in high-risk populations for the purpose of hepatitis B vaccination; increased the availability of free to low-cost testing and screening in regions where services were not available.

CONCLUSIONS: The OAAHC has helped APIs in Ohio to better engage policymaker (i.e. state legislators), especially for API-serving organizations. It has also increased the availability of linguistically and culturally accessible hepatitis B prevention, education and screening resources.