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The Fall 2002 meeting of the Community House Calls Advisory Board was held on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 at Harborview's Research and Training Building. Representatives of Cambodian, Vietnamese, Somali, Ethiopian, Oromo, Tigrean and Latino communities met with the House Calls Program staff, manager, caseworker cultural mediators (CCMs), nurse, doctors and guests.
Mental Health
Dr. Lorin Gardner gave an update about the Mental Health Brochures. She was working to add local resource names and numbers to the end of the brochure.
Reading and Literacy
Kendra Jones, HMC Literacy Coordinator, passed out books to the community members to take back to their children, families, communities and centers. Kendra described the Reach Out and Read program that promotes literacy by sending books home with children and parents when they visit the doctor's office. She encouraged parents to look at books with their children - even if they cannot read English. Parents can look at the pictures with their children and make up stories to go along with the pictures. While most books are in English, the program also has books written in Spanish and some of the Asian languages. She is also trying to find books in the East African languages. Kendra Jones suggested that communities access free education resources at the public libraries, like ESL classes and computer instruction. She passed out information in Somali, Vietnamese, Spanish and several other languages that explain how to get a library card.
Dr. Needlman, the founder of Reach Out and Read will be in Seattle on October 24, 2002 to speak at Children's Hospital. Dr Needlman is interested in working with non-English speaking communities and had heard about Housecalls. The CAB agreed to proceed with an exploratory meeting with Dr. Needlman to look at what might be done to help immigrant and non-English speaking communities improve literacy among their children.
Gangs
Representatives of the Seattle Police Department, Gang Violence Unit were invited to talk with the Advisory Board about gangs. Detectives Johnson and Stevenson talked about things parents and communities can do to prevent their children from being involved in gangs, and how to find out if your child is in a gang. They described some possible signs of a child's gang membership:
The officers said that, technically, gang crime has decreased in Seattle in the last 10 years ago. But, they explained that some crimes are gang-related but do not get classified as gang crimes because they are not violent crimes, like car theft. They felt that gang membership in Seattle is probably rising. The number of East African gang members are definitely increasing. Gang members are mostly ages 13-19, but there are children as young as 8 and 9 years old who are gang members, and there are some people in their 20s, 30s and even 40s.
The police suggested that parents watch and ask about what their children watch on television, what music they listen to, who their friends are, who their friends' parents are, where their children go and what activities they do. Linh Thach, Asian Community Liaison to the Chief of Police, said he is available to help immigrant and refugee groups connect with the Chief and other Police about issues of concern, and is willing to work with Advisory Board members to arrange for Seattle Police officers to meet with families in their communities. The guests from the Seattle Police Department said that some Police programs that serve communities and families, like the truancy program, are being canceled because of budget cuts.
Linh Thach can be reached at 206-684-7712 (tel) or email linh.thach@ci.seattle.wa.us
HERS Project
Warya Potham, Founder and Director of HERS Project, presented the successful HERS program for "at risk" Cambodian girls. For Warya's project, "at risk" means a girl may not be in trouble herself, but that she may come from a family situation with siblings or relatives involved in gangs violence, or other at risk behaviors. In the HERS program, girls find mental health support, employment, and tutoring. Girls have the chance to earn money while doing community service, mentoring younger kids, building skills in math, science, writing, computers, web page design and other activities, including cultural and athletic. The program gives the girls opportunities for structure and achievement - they graduate the program with a portfolio complete with resume and samples of their work.
Warya described how HERS started as an idea to help the girls and families she was serving in her role as a caseworker in the House Calls Program. Many girls were having problems. Warya found out most girls were not able to access existing youth programs due in part to cultural and family barriers to girls participating in sports or extra-curricular activities. HERS attracted the interest of benefactors, who donated space and some money to start up the project. Since beginning seven years ago, HERS has been successful in collaborating with other organizations in Seattle to receive large grants and other resources. Warya discussed some of her fundraising and program strategies, and offered to continue conversation with Advisory Board members who want to develop girls programs in their communities. The Advisory Board members were enthusiastic about learning from Warya's work to help build successful youth programs in their own communities. There was some interest in communities working on programs together to help their kids and families. House Calls manager reminded the group that the CCMs were trained in parent education and are good resources to support communities' needs for parent education.
The meeting ended with plans for gathering next time. The Winter Community House Calls Advisory Board meeting will have continued discussion and presentations addressing the issues of youth violence, prevention and related topics.