Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Non-Construction - Asian/Pacific Islander (API) adults comprise more than a third (37%) of Santa Clara County's population, or 701,404 people. The API population is projected to grow by approximately 50% from 2010 to 2060, surpassing Whites as the largest population in Santa Clara County. Despite the large size of the API population in the County, disaggregating reportable data by API subgroups is a challenge. Some API subgroups experience poorer health outcomes than other API racial/ethnic groups. The seven most populous Asian subgroups in Santa Clara County are Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Pacific Islanders. In 2021, the API Community Health Worker (APICHW) Program was established as an outcome of a 2017 County of Santa Clara Public Health Department Asian and Pacific Islander Demographic and Health Assessment Report and a follow-up API Health Implementation Plan. The API Implementation plan served as an essential guide in understanding the specific API communities' diverse health needs across all seven API subpopulations and a vital tool for identifying strategies to address the identified needs. The community health worker (CHW) model was identified as a key strategy among several API subgroups to address the lack of knowledge of existing services for people in the community and siloed services creating difficulty with consumer navigation across all seven Asian subpopulations. Asian American for Community Involvement, a large non-profit organization with a long-standing history of services in the API Community, was a crucial partner in developing the API Implementation Plan and is currently the lead partner for the APICHW Program. The Community Funding Project request will support the expansion of the APICHW Program. The APICHW Program aims to build and maintain a cadre of trained CHWs to provide culturally appropriate health assessments, outreach, and health education, as well as linkages to health care and community-based services in Santa Clara County. Career development opportunities, such as leadership development and economic self-sufficiency, are also a core component of the CHW capacity-building activities. The services provided by the APICHW are specific to community-identified priority healthcare needs across all API subgroups. Current efforts focus on three API sub-populations most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: Vietnamese, Filipino, and Asian Indian. This project will expand to serve all seven API subgroups and develop a network of grassroots API serving community-based organizations with the capacity and infrastructure to scale up operations and align efforts. Finally, this project will generate valuable disaggregated data on individual and community-level outcomes, health impacts, and needs to inform future service planning and community engagement efforts.
