Final report

Executive Summary

In the next six months, several thousand new Hmong refugees from Laos are scheduled to begin arriving in Sacramento from Thailand. The U.S. State Department recently announced plans to resettle approximately 15,000 Hmong refugees from Laos currently living in Thailand.

Between 1976 and 1990, some 130,000 Hmong refugees were resettled in the U.S. However, about 40,000 chose to stay in Thailand out of fear of persecution if they were to be repatriated to Laos, and for fear of the unknown and unfamiliar life if emigrated to the U.S. When the last camp officially closed in the late 1990s, those who remained in Thailand were no longer eligible for international aid and were ineligible for legal status in Thailand. Consequently, their access to employment and basic needs such as healthcare and education were limited.

Through the humanitarian efforts of a Thai Buddhist Abbot, many refugees found refuge at Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple 90 miles Northeast of Bangkok. For the past ten years, an estimated 28,000 Hmong refugee gravitated to the temple, and set up a makeshift village of thatched roof, bamboo huts with dirt floors next to the temple compound. Due to the influential status of the Buddhist Abbot, the Hmong refugees were relatively protected from Thai Government intervention to repatriate them back to Laos. However, upon the death of the Buddhist Abbot two years ago, the Hmong lost this protection. Since the Abbot’s death, the Thai military has fenced off the compound with barbed wires to restrict movement in and out of the compound.

Recent discussions between the Thai and U.S. governments, and Hmong American leaders, have led to the U.S. State Department announcing plans to resettle these approximately 15,000 Hmong refugees originally from Laos and now living in Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand. Thai Government registered Wat Tham Krabok residents in April 2003 to August 2003 to be able to report to the U.S. Government how many people they were to be resettled. The U.S. State Department have not yet considered resettlement for the rest of the Hmong refugees who missed the registration last summer either because they left the Wat or mistrusted the Thai Government’s explanation for why they were being registered, concerned that they may be repatriated back to Laos instead. In March 2004, U.S. State Department officials began screening the refugees for eligibility. The Hmong refugees are scheduled to arrive in the U.S. in late June 2004 through December 2004. Advocacy efforts are still continuing to achieve resettlement for all Hmong refugees remaining in Thailand to the U.S.

Unlike previous refugee groups, the majority of this group will be pre-destined for family reunification, which means that they have the option of choosing their own destination and be resettled near family members. Sacramento is home to the third largest group of Hmong Americans, after Fresno and St. Paul, Minnesota. Therefore, it is anticipated that the Sacramento community will receive several thousand new Hmong refugees over the next six months.

Traditionally, voluntary resettlement agencies (also known as VOLAGS) provided direct assistance for refugees during the first 90 days upon arrival. This included assistance applying for a social security card and public assistance programs such as Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). However, most refugees do not have on-going support beyond the initial 90 day assistance. With this in mind, the local Hmong community has begun to mobilize around the important effort to ensure access to necessary services for every adult, child, and family as an augmentation program for the first 90 days and continual supportive services beyond the initial 90 days.

The Sacramento Hmong Refugee (SHR) Task Force, a task force of local Hmong community leaders and professionals, came together to build a Coordinated Network of Support comprised of local government service agencies, mainstream community-based organizations, and Hmong organizations and professionals. The SHR Task Force’s vision is for these agencies to work together collaboratively and fluidly as one seamless system of care.

To actualize this vision of a Coordinated Network of Support, the SHR Task Force has already developed a set of recommendations that cover the areas of health and mental health, human assistance and social services, education, housing, employment, and youth. The recommendations were developed through community input from members of the Sacramento Hmong community who were once refugees themselves. The purpose of this Special Report is to describe the characteristics of the anticipated Hmong refugees, the community-led process by which the recommendations were developed, to share the community’s input about what strategies worked and which ones did not work in the past, and to present the set of recommendations. It is the hope of the SHR Task Force that policy makers, agency directors and managers, and others who are in the position of influencing how staff and other resources are allocated, will not only utilize this document to inform and guide the decisions they make, but also include the Hmong community as equal partners in the further planning, implementation and evaluation of these recommendations and the Coordinated Network of Support as a whole.

Introduction

The Hmong who now live in the U.S., as well as the Hmong refugees who still remain in Thailand today originally made their home in Laos. Laos is a country landlocked between the countries of China, Vietnam, Cambodian, Thailand and Burma. Beginning in 1961, when the U.S. military allied with the Royal Lao Government of Laos to ward off communist expansion, the U.S. Government recruited Hmong forces commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Vang Pao to aid the effort to fend off the communist forces. Because of their extreme bravery, loyalty, superb fighting skills, knowledge of the jungle, and strategic location, the Hmong were assigned to carry out multiple important military missions in Laos, such as checking and harassing communist forces that were infiltrating Route 7 and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and rescuing American personnel, particularly downed pilots. This involvement became known as the “Secret War in Laos.”

By 1966, Laos was immersed in a full-scale war from North to South. Fierce fighting took place from 1967 to 1972, and thousands of Hmong were called on to serve. The Hmong fought for more than 15 years on the behalf of the U.S. Thousands died in the line of duty to keep the communists out of Laos and in rescue missions of countless U.S. pilots and other military personnel downed by enemy fire. It is estimated that 30,000 Hmong soldiers and civilians died.

The U.S. Government made a promise to the Hmong people that it would restore and protect independence and freedom in the country of Laos and to the Hmong living in Laos. However, when in early 1975 Pathet Lao Communists gained control of Laos, the U.S. halted its war effort in Laos and abandoned the Hmong who fought their war. On May 14, 1975, a month after the Pathet Lao Communists gained control of Laos, the U.S. Government airlifted only General Vang Pao and 2,500 of his top military leaders, and their families out of Laos to Thailand. Hmong soldiers, along with other Lao ethnic groups who supported the Lao Royal Army, were disarmed and became the subject of persecution. They were hunted down, taken to concentration or “re-education camps” and their villages were burned down, sprayed with chemical weapons or bombed. Many of those that went to the re-education camps never returned to this day.

To escape persecution, more than 100,000 Hmong who were not airlifted to safety fled Laos to Thailand. The Thai government being unable to accommodate this large flight of refugees to their small country set up refugee camps along their border. The Hmong stayed in refugee camps for many years before being allowed to emigrate to many Western countries such as Australia, Canada, France, French Guyana, and the U.S.

When the Thai refugee camps officially closed in the late 1990s, an estimated 40,000 Hmong refugees from Laos remained in Thailand. They chose to stay in Thailand out of fear of persecution if repatriated to Laos, and out of fear of the unknown and unfamiliar if emigrated to the U.S. or other Western countries. However, with the closure of the camps, these refugees were left in limbo – no longer eligible for international aid, and also ineligible for Thai citizenship or any kind of recognized legal status. Consequently, they were vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation, such as earning considerably lower wages than Thai nationals, being assessed fees for basic services such as medical care and education, and being denied access to the criminal and civil justice system to be redressed for crimes and injustices committed against them.

Because of their illegal status in Thailand, the Hmong were subject to the immigration laws of that country, which would have resulted in their repatriation back to Laos. However, they have been relatively protected from Thai Government intervention due to the humanitarian efforts of a high ranking, Thai Buddhist Abbot. For more than a decade, an estimated 28,000 Hmong refugees drifted through and found refuge at Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple 90 miles Northeast of Bangkok. A makeshift village of thatched roof, bamboo huts, and dirt floor sprouted next to the temple.

Upon the death of the Thai Buddhist Abbot, the Thai military has fenced off the compound with barbed wires to restrict movement in and out of the compound. The restriction has caused tremendous hardship for the Hmong in the temple compound, as they now have limited ability to earn an income to pay for basic needs such as water, cooking fuel, and sanitation services.

With strong advocacy from Hmong American leaders in the U.S and the Thai government’s request for U.S assistance to move the Hmong from Wat Tham Krabok, in December 2003, the U.S. State Department announced plans to resettle approximately 15,000 Hmong refugees from Laos currently living in Thailand who had registered with the Thai Government between April through August of 2003. In March of 2004, U.S. State Department officials began screening the refugees for eligibility. According to the U.S. State Department, the first group of Hmong refugees will begin to arrive in late June of 2004 with more groups to follow through December 2004.

Unlike previous refugee groups, the majority of this group will be pre-destined for family reunifications, which means that they have the option of choosing where in the U.S. they would like to be resettled. As history indicates, the Hmong people prefer to stay close to their loved ones. Therefore, it is anticipated that California, and Sacramento in particular will have a considerable influx of new Hmong refugees who choose to be reunited with their families and clan members. According to the Census 2000 Report, Hmong Americans are most populous in four states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and North Carolina. Preliminary assessments conducted by a delegation from Minnesota, a delegation from California, and the Executive Director of Hmong Women’s Heritage Association all concurred that California and Minnesota will in fact have the largest numbers of arriving refugees. This is also consistent with a prior survey conducted by the U.S Department of State, which indicated that 40% of the Hmong refugees at Wat Tham Krabok have relatives in California. The census data also indicates that the Greater Sacramento region of California is home to the third largest group of Hmong Americans, after Fresno, California and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Based on screening data available from the U.S. State Department, the following is the breakdown of the 15,000 refugees by age. It is noteworthy to keep in mind as we discuss service planning needs that more than half are children.

Years of Age	Number
0-4	3,040
5-14	4,584
15-18	1,545
19-25	1,602
26-45	2,598
46-64	1,320
65+	587

The original Hmong resettlement, which largely occurred during the late 1980s through the 1990s, significantly impacted Sacramento County. While contributing wonderfully to the rich diversity of the region, the original resettlement also challenged the welfare, healthcare, and educational systems, which were unprepared and ill equipped to handle the language and cultural differences of the Hmong people. For example, some of the consequences of these systems being challenged were missed opportunities to provide timely and needed assistance, and inadequate or incompetent service provision. Consequences of this nature are extremely costly to the health and well-being of Hmong individuals and families, and may directly affect their potential for achieving optimal life outcomes.

Although smaller in number compared to the original resettlement, it is likely that this new wave of Hmong refugees will be at risk for not getting the help that they need because the government agencies providing those services are financially strained. Government agencies in California today are operating under hefty staffing and service reductions due to the State’s fiscal crisis. Therefore, the local Hmong community has mobilized its human resources and has prepared this set of recommendations to begin building a Coordinated Network of Support (CNS) – a collaboration between local government service agencies, community-based organizations, and the Hmong community -- to ensure a strong and wide safety net is cast before the new Hmong refugees arrive. Because of the predestined family reunification classification of this new group, the stress on Hmong families already residing in the U.S. will also be great as they will be the primary support system for the new arrivals from Thailand. Thus, it is also for the reason of wanting to minimize the strain on individual families that the local Hmong community has recently come together collaborative to design the CNS.

Fortunately today, Sacramento County has resources that did not exist when the first refugees arrived. There are Hmong-run Mutual Assistance Agencies (MAAs), Hmong community based agencies with Hmong staff and programs designed to serve Hmong individuals and families, a Hmong health clinic, government agencies with bilingual and bicultural Hmong staff, and agencies that provide interpretation and translation services to government agencies and healthcare providers. There is also a fairly organized network of Hmong professionals and community leaders, as well as a new generation of college students and college graduates. The hope is to utilize the rich talent in the Sacramento Hmong community, and bring these wonderful resources together in a coordinated manner with local government service agencies and other community-based agencies so that the CNS is one seamless system of care for the new arrivals.

In March 2004, the local Hmong community began to mobilize around the arrival of the new Hmong refugees and the need to build the CNS. The Executive Director of Hmong Women’s Heritage Association (HWHA) visited Thailand and the Wat compound to conduct a needs assessment. She collected survey data from 228 of the Wat residents, and brought back useful information to inform service planning about their years of residence in the Wat, family/household size, ages of family/household members, and their hopes and expectations of life in the U.S.

The first community meeting was held on April 22, 2004, at the Sacramento County Susie Gaines-Mitchell Building on Florin Road. More than 90 Hmong community leaders and professionals attended. The purpose of the meeting was to gather input from the community about past challenges and ideas for effective strategies to mitigate repeating the problems of the past. Participants broke into focus groups to collectively identify the areas of greatest need and develop a set of recommendations. Six priority areas emerged from the focus groups and served as the basis for the recommendations presented in this report. These were health and mental health, human assistance and social services, education, housing, employment, and youth.

The Sacramento Hmong Refugee Task Force (The SHR Task Force) was born out of this first community meeting and is comprised of Sacramento Hmong community members, leaders, and professionals. The SHR Task Force has continued to meet regularly to refine the set of recommendations that are presented in this report. The Task Force utilized the findings from the HWHA survey and the findings from an assessment conducted by a delegation of Minnesota researchers, service providers and elected officials, to inform these recommendations. The recommendations are also informed by the data gathered through the Sacramento focus groups. Thus, the recommendations presented in this Special Report were developed through input from the Hmong refugees in theWat themselves, as well as through community input from members of the Sacramento Hmong community who were once refugees themselves.

Health & Mental Health

The usage of the term health in this report is intended to be inclusive of physical, spiritual, and mental health. According to the health assessments conducted by the Minnesota assessment team, there were a number of health concerns among the Wat residents, including malnutrition, maternal and child health, physical disabilities, infectious diseases, diabetes, hypertension, chemical dependency, major depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, and suicidal ideation. Because there is no public health infrastructure at Wat, no morbidity and mortality data is available.

The Minnesota team also observed that current Wat residents have had more exposure to the Western medical model than did the earlier Hmong refugees. Unfortunately, they also observed that the care they receive from Thai clinics and hospitals is very poor. Quality medical care including specialty care, laboratory facilities and advanced medical equipment that is available to Thai citizens, is not available to the Hmong refugees. The costs charged to the refugees are unreachable for most families. Consequently most Hmong refugees are not receiving needed medical treatment, and most births occur in the home. In addition, there were reports of children being hit by hospital nursing staff, coerced contraception in the form of tubal ligations performed on women without their permission during cesarean section procedures, and the Minnesota physician assessment team observed clinic staff providing only 5 days of a 10-day course of antibiotics. Therefore, while on the one hand Hmong refugees seemed aware of its benefits and showed an eagerness to have access to medical care in the U.S., on the other hand they also expressed significant caution and mistrust toward the medical care delivery system.

In addition, according to the Sacramento focus groups, one of the major health related challenges encountered in the past by earlier Hmong refugees was an increase of serious health problems (e.g., cancer, stroke, diabetes) due to dietary and lifestyle changes and a lack of access to preventive health information. Additional barriers to accessing health care included insufficient health insurance coverage, lack of transportation, lack of qualified interpreters; and lack of culturally competent health and mental health providers. Considerable mistrust of Western treatment approaches and practices among non-Hmong providers also contributed to not accessing or delays in seeking available medical care. Some of this mistrust was based on repeated experiences with language and cultural misunderstandings between Hmong patients and non-Hmong medical providers. Stigma around mental illness also hindered the Hmong from seeking available mental health care.

Keeping these issues in mind, the SHR Task Force aimed to address the important concerns of access, cultural competency, and health education in their following health related recommendations.

Recommendation 1. Assist with accessing comprehensive health care by providing enrollment assistance for Medi-Cal, transportation, and qualified interpreters.

Recommendation 2. Develop and disseminate a community resource and referral directory of Hmong and culturally competent non-Hmong providers.

Recommendation 3. Provide culturally competent health education and health screenings for new Hmong refugees. These screenings and educational topics should cover the physical and mental health concerns identified by the Minnesota assessment team, which parallel the concerns that emerged from the Sacramento focus groups. Strategies for conducting outreach for screenings and health education should include methods proven to be effective among the Hmong community in the past, such as the use of Hmong radio stations, videos, translated written materials, and free workshops. Health information should aim to educate new Hmong refugees about preventive health through diet and exercise, proper self-care for chronic conditions, symptoms of mental health problems (especially PTSD, depression, and anxiety disorders) and available care, and family strengthening principles and parenting skills for healthy emotional development. The materials should be created by culturally competent health and mental health care professionals. Workshops should be conducted by culturally competent health and mental health care professionals as well.

Human Assistance and Social Services

According to the Minnesota assessment, the Hmong currently residing in Wat are more familiar with modern technology than the earlier Hmong refugees were, having been exposed to radio, cell phones, television, and VCRs. At least one refugee reportedly had an email address and some had bank accounts, apparently established by relatives in the U.S., and knew how to use an ATM card to withdraw funds. Some of the refugees in Wat had cars and motorcycles. While this exposure to modern technology should prove advantageous to them as they adjust to life in the U.S., their lack of personal resources and familiarity with the language, culture, and systems will undoubtedly pose some significant challenges for which human assistance and social service agencies can be very helpful.

Human assistance and social service agencies provide a wide range of programs from cash aid to assistance with transportation and daily living skills. According to the Sacramento Focus Groups, many of the barriers to accessing human assistance and social services in the past were related to refugees not having a clear understanding of eligibility criteria or procedures, agency functions, or their rights (e.g., right to obtain services, appeals process, fair hearing, etc.) to effectively navigate the system. In addition, the absence of a Hmong speaking staff person or qualified interpreter within those agencies made it difficult for limited English speakers to advocate for themselves. Discrimination from human assistance and social service providers who refused to assist them or treated them rudely were additional barriers to accessing available services. Lack of transportation and lack of familiarity with how to use public transportation were also barriers to reaching human assistance and social service agencies.

Recommendation 1. Conduct community outreach and orientations in Hmong about the different human assistance and social service agency functions, their eligibility for services, procedures for accessing services, and their legal rights.

Recommendation 2. Designate bilingual and bicultural Hmong staff in human assistance and social service agencies to assist with the application process and provide referrals.

Recommendation 3. Provide ongoing support services to ensure optimal transition.

Recommendation 4. Provide culturally appropriate workshops to teach survival skills.

Education

According to an assessment of current conditions in Wat conducted by a team of Minnesota researchers, only roughly half of the 6,000 school-aged children are enrolled in school. The primary reason for under-enrollment is cost. Because of their illegal alien status, Hmong have to pay a fee to attend Thai public schools, and the fee is unreachable for many families. Most of the children only have two or three years of education at most, and 63% of the adults have no educational background at all. Literacy in Hmong is the highest, followed by Thai, then Lao. Literacy levels in English are extremely low. Another relevant finding is that there is a high rate of school-aged teenagers who are married and have children.

Findings from the survey conducted by HWHA indicate that the Hmong desire educational opportunities in the U.S. for themselves, siblings, and children. Educational aspirations ranged from learning English and marketable job skills, to attending graduate and medical school.

The Sacramento focus group revealed a long list of problems encountered by earlier Hmong refugees that deserve attention. Some of these challenges were at the individual student level, such as limited academic knowledge, English language skills, knowledge about academic and school cultures, conflicting values and beliefs between Hmong and U.S. education, low self-esteem, vulnerability negative peer influences, and cultural adjustment difficulties. Others were environmental factors that created challenges to learning, such as lack of financial resources to access education materials (e.g., books, dictionary, computer), absence of role models, and racial discrimination. Additional environmental risk factors included specific problems with the educational system that were identified by the focus group participants, such as inappropriate student placements and poor communication between schools and parents, lack of meaningful intervention program for Hmong students who are about to fail, and inadequate attention from teachers and school administrators. For adult students specifically, problems were reported about how continuation and adult education programs are not structured to prepare students for higher education and employment. For students of all ages, a lack of transportation to attend school and childcare options were additional barriers for educational success.

Some of the strategies and programs that were identified by the Sacramento focus group as working well in the past were: one-on-one tutoring and/or academic counseling; having credentialed Hmong teachers and certified Hmong bilingual aides in the classrooms, access to bilingual community liaisons and parent advisors, and teaching staff and schools that demonstrate a commitment to meeting the cultural and linguistic needs of foreign born students. Also helpful were extended summer school for Hmong students, Hmong language and literacy classes, English Language Development (ELD) classes, Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE)core classes; availability of Hmong student clubs in the high schools, college outreach and mentoring programs that target Hmong students, and Community Based English Tutoring (CBET) for adult students.

Recommendation 1. Provide orientation in Hmong for students and parents on school culture, rules, services, academic goals and requirements, and study skills.

Recommendation 2. Provide training for school staff regarding special learning needs of foreign born students and the Hmong culture, specifically.

Recommendation 3. Assign credentialed Hmong bilingual teachers and certified bilingual aids to work with the new refugee students and their parents.

Recommendation 4. Place newcomer students in appropriate for ELD and SDAIE classes.

Recommendation 5. Provide one-on-one tutoring and academic counseling.

Recommendation 6. Provide peer or adult mentoring programs and college outreach programs.

Recommendation 7. Solicit donations for educational materials such as dictionary, books, computers, study desks, educational supplies, and school uniforms for students of all ages.

Recommendation 8. Provide transportation and childcare for students of all ages to attend school.

Employment

Three primary employment concerns emerged from the Minnesota assessment. These were that adults will have difficulty learning English, will have little to no technical and advanced work skills, and will require affordable childcare in order to be able to attend English classes and job skills training, and to go to work. Most current residents of Wat have relied on physical labor (primarily with local Thai farmers, construction contractors, and a nearby rock quarry), needlework and other handcrafts as a means for earning income.

Similarly, according to the survey conducted by HWHA, concerns about the lack of English and job skills were heard. While some of the refugees expressed their desire for financial assistance from the U.S. Government or expected their children to find employment that will support the family, others expressed a great desire to secure a job for themselves in order to support their own family. Several voiced aspirations for self-employment as a farmer or restaurateur.

From the Sacramento focus groups emerged several major employment challenges encountered in the past by earlier Hmong refugees. These were language and cultural barriers, lack of transferable job skills, lack of self-employment skills, lack of transportation, lack of affordable childcare, disabilities and chronic health conditions, and not being able to earn a livable wage.

Among the strategies that worked well in the past for the earlier Hmong refugees were pre-employment training workshops, English language learning classes, employment intensive services (e.g., job coaching), job skills training (including on the job training and programs that integrated pre-existing skills), and job searching skills (such as through a career center or employment agency). Additional effective strategies that emerged from the Sacramento focus group were job placement in family owned businesses, job placement with employers who have had good experiences with hiring refugees in the past, helping family members and relatives by providing referrals, and being permitted to sell goods at local farmers markets.

Recommendation 1. Link Hmong refugees to community resources that can provide English language learning classes, cultural orientation workshops, and information on how to use public transportation.

Recommendation 2. Link Hmong refugees to community resources that offer employment services, including job skills training workshops, on the job training, job coaching, workshops on how to start your own business, and job seeking skills training.

Recommendation 3. Assist Hmong refugees to access affordable childcare and transportation.

Recommendation 4. Assist Hmong refugees with job placements in Hmong-run businesses and other employers who are willing to hire refugees.

Youth

Aside from the educational and health related needs addressed in previous sections of this report, youth will require special attention to their social and emotional needs as well. According to the Minnesota assessment, over half of the Wat residents are youth. These youth have lived their entire lives as refugees. Family relationships have been severely disrupted as a result of disease and forced separation. Some youth have experienced the loss of all their immediate family members, and have survived by banding together with distantly or sometimes totally unrelated youth and adults. In addition, the Minnesota assessment team observed a high rate of teens who were married and had children.

One of the major youth challenges identified by the Sacramento focus group was peer pressure to participate in gang activity, which led to school truancy, drug use, and other criminal behavior. Other challenges included cultural identity confusion, not being grounded in the Hmong language and traditions, and intergenerational cultural and value conflicts with parents and other family members. Still other challenges for youth were cultural pressure to marry young, school dropout, academic difficulties, and untreated mental illness.

Recommendation 1. Provide prevention intervention programs that aim to promote healthy social and emotional development among Hmong refugee youth. Cultural competency of the program content is important. Such programs should integrate cultural identity development, intergenerational and other issues that are unique to the Hmong refugee experience. They should also include a cultural preservation component that introduces youth to dance and other arts from the Hmong culture, and a leadership component that exposes youth to positive Hmong role models and encourages participation in Hmong National Development conferences. Based on the past successes, the following programs are recommended for partnering to develop and deliver such programs: Boys and Girls Clubs, Hmong Womens/Mens Circle, high school and college tutoring programs, and HOPES (Hmong Organization for Parents, Educators, and Students). To improve the effectiveness of mainstream youth programs for Hmong refugee youth, Hmong community-based organizations (CBOs) and Mutual Assistance Associations (MAAs) should collaborate with these mainstream youth programs.

Recommendation 2. Provide prevention intervention programs that aim to strengthen the entire family’s capacity to raise emotionally healthy children. Programs of this nature should include parent orientations on how to participate in their child’s school and education, and workshops for parents regarding child welfare and policies. Other programming for families should include information about the kinds of acculturation issues immigrants and refugees experience, and workshops to promote positive and loving parent-child relationships, effective communication skills and conflict resolution, and respect among the younger generation for Hmong cultural values.

Recommendation 3. Conduct research to identify concerns among Hmong refugee youth to inform programming.

Recommendation 4. Community advocacy for AB 78 to encourage teaching in the public schools about Southeast Asians’ contributions to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam.

Recommendations Summary

HEALTH & MENTAL HEALTH

q Recommendation 1. Assist with accessing comprehensive health care by providing enrollment assistance for Medi-Cal, transportation, and qualified interpreters.

q Recommendation 2. Develop and disseminate a community resource and referral directory of Hmong and culturally competent non-Hmong providers.

q Recommendation 3. Provide culturally competent health education and health screenings for new Hmong refugees.

HUMAN ASSISTANCE & SOCIAL SERVICES

q Recommendation 1. Conduct community outreach and orientations in Hmong about the different human assistance and social service agency functions, their eligibility for services, procedures for accessing services, and their legal rights.

q Recommendation 2. Designate bilingual and bicultural Hmong staff in human assistance and social service agencies to assist with the application process and provide referrals.

q Recommendation 3. Provide ongoing support services to ensure optimal transition.

q Recommendation 4. Provide culturally appropriate workshops to teach survival skills.

EDUCATION

q Recommendation 1. Provide orientation in Hmong for students and parents on school culture, rules, services, academic goals and requirements, and study skills.

q Recommendation 2. Provide training for school staff regarding special learning needs of foreign born students and the Hmong culture, specifically.

q Recommendation 3. Assign credentialed Hmong bilingual teachers and certified bilingual aids to work with the new refugee students and their parents.

q Recommendation 4. Place students in appropriate English Language Development and Specially Designed Academic Instruction core classes.

q Recommendation 5. Provide one-on-one tutoring.

q Recommendation 6. Provide a peer or adult mentoring or outreach programs.

q Recommendation 7. Solicit donations for educational materials such as dictionary, books, computers, study desks, educational supplies, and school uniforms for school-aged students.

q Recommendation 8. Provide transportation for both school-aged and adult students to attend school.

HOUSING

q Recommendation 1. Engage in community advocacy to develop creative solutions for affordable housing for Hmong refugees.

q Recommendation 2. Partner with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Housing Alliance to create affordable housing options for the Hmong refugees.

q Recommendation 3. Encourage local MAAs to serve as guarantors of the rental property for refugee families to qualify for affordable rent.

q Recommendation 4. Provide orientation and education on tenant-landlord rights and responsibilities, home living skills, home ownership, and other relevant housing topics.

EMPLOYMENT

q Recommendation 1. Link Hmong refugees to community resources that can provide English language learning classes, cultural orientation workshops, and information on how to use public transportation.

q Recommendation 2. Link Hmong refugees to community resources that offer employment services, including job skills training workshops, on the job training, job coaching, workshops on how to start your own business, and job seeking skills training.

q Recommendation 3. Assist Hmong refugees to access childcare and transportation.

q Recommendation 4. Assist Hmong refugees with job placements in Hmong-run businesses and other employers who are willing to hire refugees.

YOUTH

q Recommendation 1. Provide prevention intervention programs that aim to promote healthy social and emotional development among Hmong refugee youth.

q Recommendation 2. Provide prevention intervention programs that aim to strengthen the entire family’s capacity to raise emotionally healthy children.

q Recommendation 3. Conduct research to identify concerns among Hmong refugee youth to inform programming.

q Recommendation 4. Community advocacy for AB 78 to encourage teaching in the public schools about Southeast Asians’ contributions to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam.

SACRAMENTO HMONG REFUGEE TASK FORCE

A SPECIAL REPORT:

A Coordinated Network of Support

For Hmong Refugees to Sacramento County

In the next six months, several thousand new Hmong refugees from Laos are scheduled to begin arriving in Sacramento from Thailand. The U.S. State Department recently announced plans to resettle approximately 15,000 Hmong refugees from Laos currently living in Thailand.

Housing

Employment

Recommendations Summary

HEALTH & MENTAL HEALTH

HUMAN ASSISTANCE & SOCIAL SERVICES

Acknowledgments