Montgomery County’s Asian American Health Initiative’s Healthy Community Fund Awards $1.5 Million to Programs for the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community

Patrick Herron October 24, 2023 at 8:25pm

Per Montgomery County: “Montgomery County’s Asian American Health Initiative (AAHI), a program of the County’s Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded 14 local programs a total of $1.5 million from its Healthy Communities Fund. The funding will be used to develop new and sustain existing culturally and linguistically appropriate programs and services in behavioral health, senior wellness and health and social support services for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.

AAPI communities account for about 15 percent of Montgomery County’s overall population and the County is one of the most diverse communities in the United States, with more than 49 percent of population comprised of minorities. The AAPI community can be further broken down into multiple communities, each characterized by a unique mix of language, culture, religion and social norms. Because of the growing diversity and wide range of languages, cultures and socioeconomic status within AAPI communities, providing community health education, services and programs to residents of AAPI descent is more complex and requires custom approaches to reach the at-need communities.

“These grant funds will help strengthen safety net services to achieve better health and wellness outcomes for residents in our AAPI communities,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “We saw great success during our inaugural grant process last year and I congratulate the groups who received funding this year. Serving diverse communities is best done by grassroots organizations that operate in the community and the Healthy Communities Fund will help these organizations build greater capacity to serve our AAPI communities.”

This is the second year that AAHI has administered the Healthy Communities Fund, which is implemented in partnership with the Primary Care Coalition (PCC). Through support from the County Executive, the County Council and local community advocates, funding available increased this year by $630,000.

In addition to funding programs and services for AAPI residents, the Healthy Communities Fund also aims to increase the capacity and sustainability of local AAPI-serving organizations and uses an equity framework to ensure equitable distribution of funds to diverse community organizations. A notable change to this year’s grant process was providing grant writing assistance to interested organizations through a partnership with Community Development Professionals, LLC. The consultations were added to this year’s process to ensure equity in the process and support community organizations in improving their grant application skills. This year’s process also made a distinction between organizations applying for less than $50,000. Organizations who submitted applications for less than $50,000 were evaluated against one another. This change was made to support smaller organizations and offer them the opportunity to compete with organizations of similar size and stature.

A total of 23 proposals were submitted, requesting more than $2.2 million. After a competitive review process, 15 programs, including six new organizations, received funding to provide services from Sept. 11, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

The following organizations received funding:

American Diversity Group – $129,136

American Muslim Senior Society – $128,316

Asian American LEAD – $64,801

Chinese American Community Health Services – $131,351

Chinese American Parents Association of Maryland County Maryland – $42,900*

Chinese Culture and Community Service Center – $118,723

Hepatitis B Initiative of Washington DC – $140,820*

IMAAM Center – $112,683*

Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington – $144,761

Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association – $148,495

Older Adults Technology Services – $120,000 *