BPSOS, a community-based organization serving Vietnamese-Americans across the country, is providing a range of services to assist the Vietnamese-American victims of the Gulf Coast oil spill. These include direct services, such as translation and interpretation, community education, and legal assistance.       To learn more about their efforts, CLICK HERE.  

The 2010 Department of Homeland Security preparedness grants contain 10 grant programs that support strengthening of community preparedness and participation efforts. This summary is intended to assist potential grantees with identifying the full breadth of resources available to support the critical mission of community resilience. To view the full summary CLICK HERE.

November 6-10, 2010
Denver, CO

The American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Exposition is the oldest and largest  gathering of public health professionals in the world, attracting more than 13,000 attendees.  The conference features numerous sessions on preparedness and diverse populations, including the poster session Emergency Preparedness Policies: Are We Preparing for Everyone? For more information CLICK HERE. 

The Office of Minority Health (OMH) has recently released a set of online courses to provide guidance for emergency personal responding to the needs of diverse communities following a disaster. The curriculum is grounded in OMH’s CLAS Standards which spans the topics of culturally competent care, language access services, and organizational supports. Free registration is required. For more information CLICK HERE.  

Based on feedback from an expert panel, this planning guide provides a set of actionable step to integrate racially and ethnically diverse migrant farm workers into preparedness and response plans. Strategies for working with immigration officials, bi-lingual interpreters, and trusted community leaders are discussed. To view the planning guide CLICK HERE.

The RAND Corporation recently released an interactive toolkit with strategies and resources to help public health departments prepare for and respond to special needs populations, including racial/ethnic minorities and those with LEP, in a public health emergency. A GIS mapping tool was also developed that allows for preparedness-related population characteristics to be mapped at the state, county, and Census tract level. To access the resource CLICK HERE.

This New York Times article describes the preliminary mental health impacts of the Deep Horizon oil spill on Vietnamese fishermen in the Gulf Coast region. The spill has had an immediate economic impact on Vietnamese fishermen in the region and their way of life—leading to feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, stress, anger, depression and suicidal thoughts as a result. To view the article CLICK HERE.