Section I : Agency Description

1. The Asian American Council's mission

Incorporated in 2002 , the Asian American Council, Dayton , Ohio , works  to :

a) promote full participation in democratic processes

b) develop awareness and appreciation of the diversity of Asian American cultures and the roles of Asian Americans in American history

c) improve Asian American's well-being and quality of life through advocacy, education and access to quality services.

Our current member organizations include the following :

• Dayton Area Korean Association  (DAKA)
• Dayton Association of Chinese Americans (DACA)
• India Club of Greater Dayton
• Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
• Office of Latino, Asian, and Native American Affairs (LANA Center)
• Philippine-American Society of Greater Dayton ( PASGD)
• Sikh Society of Greater Dayton (SSGD)
• Vietnamese Association of the Greater Dayton (VAGD)

While our mission is to improve the well-being and quality of life for Asian Americans, we also partner to educate the community at large regarding issues involving Asian American, including language/cultural barriers and access to services.

2.  The Asian American Council's mandate

The Asian American Council serves Asian American populations in the Greater Dayton area including the Montgomery and Greene Counties.

Our health outreach programs target those who are not currently receiving basic health services, including new immigrant families, the linguistically isolated and those without basic health insurance.

The need for proactive measures are increasingly urgent as Ohio's Asian immigrant populations have increased rapidly in the past decade  ( by 49.1% between 2000 and 2010 in comparison with a corresponding 9.7% increase among the non-Asian population). Further, most Asian immigrants are from countries wherein certain infectious diseases ( such as Hepatitis B and tuberculosis) are highly prevalent and the risk for chronic diseases ( such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease) grows at an alarming rate.

In our health outreach efforts, we seek to establish partnerships with our local Public Health and health care providers in developing long-term, self-sustaining initiatives to improve the health status among Asians and other minority groups, to increase access to health programs and services and to decrease health disparities.

3. Previous Experience in Providing Services to Minority Populations

The Ohio Asian American Council has sponsored health programs that involve community outreach, including Health Education Workshops and Community Conversations, which engage Asian Americans on topics such as  :

• Strengthening Asian American Communities through Advocacy
• Health & Social Disparities in Asian American Communities
• Diabetes Prevention and Control
• Heart Risk Reduction  through Healthy Eating and Exercise

The Asian American Council has also presented the Health Fairs at the Asian Cultural Festival ( 2008. 2009)  and at the AWorldA'Fair for the past nine years ( 2009 to present).

The  Asian American Council is one of the sponsoring organizations of the Ohio Asian American Health Coalition whose focus is reducing health disparities among Ohio's Asian communities. Emphasis is primary prevention of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis and certain forms of cancer ( including cervical and lung cancers ), as all of these diseases are becoming more prevalent in Asian populations or are already present at higher rates than in other groups. We also work to provide Hepatitis B screenings and educational materials aimed at eliminating health disparities in the Greater Dayton area.