Montgomery County officials are hoping that an influx of grant money to local community organizations will improve the health of Asian residents, especially seniors who were hard hit during the coronavirus pandemic which has lingered for nearly three years. More than $830,000 will be split among 10 organizations focused on Asian communities in the county, such as nonprofit Korean Community Services of Greater Washington and Silver Spring-based nonprofit Vietnamese American Services.
The mix of federal and county money will be spread across 80 different programs.
“With this grant's support, we were able to designate our staff to provide design and services to focus on chronic care management,” said Kate Lu, division director of health and human services at the Chinese Culture and Community Service Center.
There are more than 168,700 residents in Montgomery County who are identified in the U.S. Census as Asian, the highest concentration of Asian residents in Maryland with roughly 16% of the county population.
Asian residents are roughly 7% of the state population. Much smaller communities exist in Baltimore County with 6.5% and Baltimore City with 2.8% of the population are Asian, according to U.S. Census data.
During the coronavirus pandemic that began in March 2020, the burden on Asian-American communities was not limited to physical health concerns of catching a deadly virus.
Asian people were targets of hate crimes, physically attacked in public and accused of spreading the virus. Beyond that, many Asian-Americans experienced isolation, dealt with chronic illnesses and have mental and physical scars from years of the pandemic altering daily life.
Montgomery County wants to improve mental health, wellness among seniors and offer more social support services with the grant money that runs out in June 2023.
“With this support, we will be able to increase our capacity to serve more people,and bring more aid to the community through social services and healthcare, Ji-Young Cho, executive director of Korean Community Services of Greater Washington. “We will also have grocery delivery as well.”
The Chinese Culture and Community Service Center in Gaithersburg stood up a mental health initiative known as Program to Empower Active and Rewarding Living with the grant funds. The program will enlist trained counselors to check in on 20 isolated elderly people in the community on a regular basis so they can troubleshoot issues in daily life.
“The unique thing about Asian Americans is their challenges are so unique that traditional methods don't always bring them up,” said Muhammad Hasan, the program manager for the Asian American Health Initiative in Montgomery County said. “Activities like mission focus groups, or unique community events. Those are really key to bringing up the issues and then utilizing our community partners that have the trust of the community to serve them.”
Earlier this year, the Asian American Health Initiative awarded $1 million across 11 community centers in the region as COVID-19 relief.
