Fresno Center for New Americans (FCNA) was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1991, to respond to the growing needs of Southeast Asians (Cambodians, Hmong, Lao, & Vietnamese) in Fresno County. Some of those immediate and critical needs include acculturation and general health education. Today FCNA's scope of services also encompasses clients from many other areas around the world besides Southeast Asia. Russians and other former Soviet Union refugees have also been able to access employment and social services through FCNA. In addition, FCNA strives and engages in educational, social, economic challenges, and other ...

Hmong Health Navigation Project

In 2004, the project was founded in response to an immediate need; a new wave of 6,000 Hmong refugees were arriving in the Central Valley from Thailand, where they had been raising their families since assisting the United States during the Vietnam War era in Laos.

The Hmong serving community based organizations in the Central Valley realized that by working together to implement lessons learned from previous waves of refugee resettlement, they could help ease the transition. A partnership of nine community organizations were formed. By joining together, the Hmong Health Collaborative, works cooperatively togehter to promote culturally competent health care access for one of the nation's largest Hmong community. In addition, the collaborative increased their capacity to effectively advocate for change.

The collaborative's success in organizing, researching, and advocating for new refugees has guided it into Phase III of the project: creating lasting systems change in the California health care systems that will benefit the entire Hmong community. Specifically, in Phase III, the collaborative is focus on policy changes that will:

• Improve interactions between patients and healthcare and mental health providers by increasing awareness of Hmong culture;
• Increase access to healthcare and mental health services offeced in the Hmong language;
• Expand Hmong representation in both healthcare and mental health workforce; and
• Build capacity in the Hmong community to educate and advocate with policy makers about health needs of the Hmong community.

Tom T. Thao, Project Coordinator