About ACA
ACA is guided by a Board of Directors, which represents the citizenry who reside in the Cincinnati area from many different Asian countries. ACA has communicated with diverse community groups, engaged leaders within distinct populations, established credibility, and developed shared goals and objectives among the participating Asian neighborhoods, churches, temples, and civic groups.
What We Do
Our Work
- Created, developed, and has available a Community Resource Guide which outlines all human services so Asian populations know where to turn for family needs such as health, food, legal, immigration, shopping, housing, and more.
- Developed cultural competency training seminar/workshops including an Asian overview of Japan, China, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The workshops trained law enforcement, legal aid, health care and county agencies increasing their cultural sensitivity.
- Developed an Asian website in May 2007 – www.asiancommunityalliance.org – allowing for the sharing of information among all the various Asian populations in the Greater Cincinnati area. This website includes a Calendar, Community News, and Forum for the sharing of vital information among Asian communities within the Greater Cincinnati community. ACA is dedicated to activating public discussion and action around topics that uniquely affect Asian Americans.
- Direct families/individuals to social, legal, or educational service providers when they encounter issues or need advice and information.
- Convened two Asian Summits in May 2007 and October 2008 enabling local Asian communities to come together to identify needs and the most immediate concerns, engaging with the communities at the grass root level. Topics included racism, education, immigration, small business concerns, health, aging and retirement.
- Convened the first Asian Symposia on Health in April 2008, to educate, raise awareness, and ultimately reach out to various Asian communities. Health experts talked about the critical health issues such as Hepatitis B, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Teen Smoking. ACA developed and designed educational material focused on raising awareness of the health topics mentioned. ACA’s Hepatitis B Fact Sheet was translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
- ACA initiated work with local health departments and health providers to pursue a Hepatitis B screening process. ACA provided free Hepatitis B screenings during the Health Symposia and also provided participants with information on Health Clinics of several counties in Greater Cincinnati. This became a valuable tool for participants to know which health department they could reach for the follow-up vaccination program. Subsequently in August 2009, free Hepatitis B screenings was once again provided to our community.
- ACA is a founding member of the Ohio Asian American Health Coalition (OAAHC). OAAHC provides other Asian organizations in Ohio best practices for use in communities throughout the state sharing information valuable in creating a cycle of sustainability, which improves the effectiveness of all the Asian organizations involved.
- ACA is the local supervising agency for a four-year capacity building grant sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Health Forum and funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ACA will be involved in planning, coordinating, and implementing activities to help strengthen Cincinnati’s Asian American community in order to address Hepatitis B and other health disparities.
- ACA held it’s first forum on Caregivers & Emergency Preparedness in April 2009. The first half of the session focused on participants’ discussion as caregivers for their parents and older adults – their challenges and the resources that are needed in the community. The second part of the forum focused on emergency preparedness and the importance of being prepared in various emergency situations including local preparedness efforts and resources in place.
- ACA hosted the 4th Ohio Asian American Health Conference in May 2009 in collaboration with the Ohio Asian American Health Coalition and Ohio Commission on Minority Health. The conference attracted over 200 participants from across the state. Besides keynote topics that included hepatic & GI cancers and metabolic syndrome, concurrent breakout sessions were also held on topics such as aging, oral health, diabetes, mental illness, cardiovascular disease, domestic violence, tobacco & substance abuse, complementary & alternative medicine, and HIV/AIDS. The highlight was Ohio’s Director of Health, Dr. Alvin Jackson, who gave an eloquent talk on Minority Health: Challenges & Issues with Health Care. Further, ACA received from Ted Strickland, Governor of Ohio, a proclamation emphasizing the importance of educating and raising awareness of the diseases that uniquely affect the Asian American population.
- ACA initiated a health assessment survey in August 2009 to identify the general barriers to health prevention and treatment among Asian populations in the Greater Cincinnati area. The goal is to obtain an analysis of the data collected to help generate a report to present to local social service agencies and medical care providers to improve health treatments for local Asian populations. Further, this assessment tool is designed for use in other Asian communities throughout the state of Ohio as the questions seek to identify causes of health disparities for Asian Americans.
- ACA began its first Health & Wellness program for the elderly in the community in November 2009. The main attraction of the program is the HealthRhythms Drum Circle where participants are encouraged to play music on drums to alleviate stress in their lives that is often associated with loneliness, boredom and illness.
- ACA is a member of the Emergency Preparedness Collaborative (EPC), which is working together to assist vulnerable populations in preparing and responding to emergencies in an eight county region of Ohio (Adams, Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton, Highland and Warren). ACA is in the process of creating a network tree (via email) in order to send out messages in case of an emergency.
- ACA collaborates with various community organizations such as Council of Aging (COA), Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (DVCC), Alliance for Immigrant Women (AIW) and the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) to ensure better service for Asian populations.
- ACA will begin providing interpreter services capability in the Greater Cincinnati area – plans are underway to put the program in place by 2010. Services that are appropriate for conferences, legal proceedings, local schools, corporate events, medical and social services will be set up through locally trained individuals.
