The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization will be starting new programs immediately in youth mentoring, health research and conflict resolution for newly arrived Africans, made possible by funding from new federal grants. Representing $1.4 million in funding over a three-year period, the projects have been funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Office of Minority Health and the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, respectively.

Partnering with IRCO in the youth mentoring program is the David Douglas School District. The project will serve 45 students over a period of 15 months from grades four through eight in two elementary schools and one middle school. Goals are to provide guidance promoting personal and social responsibility, to increase participation in academic learning, and to discourage involvement in gangs, illegal activities and promiscuous behavior.

Two projects directed toward increasing the understanding and use of preventive measures to protect the health of underserved and marginalized African and Asian and Pacific Islanders populations will be launched soon. IRCO will partner with the Multnomah County Health Department to increase knowledge and testing for Hepatitis B and HIV, as well as to increase the size of the pool of skilled medical interpreters fluent in those languages.

OHSU and IRCO will work together to research the most effective means to reduce the incidences of cervical cancer through culturally tailored intervention that will increase cervical cancer screenings in Vietnamese women. Vietnamese women experience the disease at rates five times that of white women in the United States.

IRCO’s Africa House will serve 115 refugees, mostly from Somalia, Ethiopia and Liberia, to reduce conflict between community members, to improve stability in family dynamics, to increase awareness of and access to culturally and linguistically appropriate services to help stabilize their living situations, and to increase community engagement in constructively resolving intercultural conflict.

Last Modified : April 16th, 2008 Filed under : News Navigate : Previous post /