Asian Health Equity Alliance (AHEA):
The Asian Health Equity Alliance (AHEA) was established in May 2021 through a grant from the CDC Foundation with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The immediate goal of this grant is to address the vaccination needs of the Asian community, more specifically Asian immigrants and those with low English proficiency.
The CDC Foundation is an independent nonprofit and the sole entity created by Congress to mobilize philanthropic and private-sector resources to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s critical health protection work. MAHA is honored to be selected as one of the five agencies nationwide receiving this two-year award.
Bullying and Suicide Prevention:
The Suicide Prevention Program (SPP) is funded by the Chicago Dept. of Public Health (CDPH) under the leadership of the Chicago Collaborative for Bullying and Suicide Prevention (CCBSP). The purpose of this program is to reduce stigma around suicide in Chicago by forming a collaborative that will work together to provide culturally competent and language appropriate education and intervention to the target population.
Midwest Asian Health Association (MAHA) is the only organization serving the Asian American population selected to convene the Chicago Collaborative for Bullying and Suicide Prevention (CCBSP).
Collaborating with the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and Erie Neighborhood House (ENH), we aim to provide meaningful impact across the City of Chicago through resource development, community awareness, and education opportunities. One of our first steps is working together to identify agencies, groups, and individuals that may have an interest in these important matters to create the Chicago Collaborative for Bullying and Suicide Prevention (CCBSP).
Seafood Consumption and Mercury Study Program:
The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health was awarded a five-year, $2.6 million research grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop a community participatory research project for reducing mercury and PCB exposure for Chicago’s Asian population. MAHA is one of the key community partners involved in this grant application. Asian women from Chicago Chinatown and Uptown will be recruited to participate in the free mercury testing and receive education about healthy seafood consumption choices. This research will measure the levels of mercury and estimate levels of PCBs — another pollutant known to concentrate in fish — in Asians living in Chicago. The findings will help researchers and community partners to develop targeted text message-based interventions to subgroups of Asians that have the highest risk of having mercury- or PCB-related health problems. The text messages will include information on safe fish consumption as well as general health messages.
