Providing a Culturally Competent Lead Safety Education Program for Refugees and Immigrants

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Providing a Culturally Competent Lead Safety
Education Program for Refugees and Immigrants

• Maura Nsonwu, MSW, LCSW
• Melissa Taylor, PhD, LCSW
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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Center for New Carolinians
Lead Safety Housing Program
Funded Through The City of Greensboro and HUD
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Ensuring that interventions with diverse
populations are delivered in a culturally
competent fashion.
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CDC- Targeted approach where at-risk children
are the primary focus.

• Immigrants/ Refugees are at higher risk for lead
  poisoning because
• Exposure in their country of origin
• Housing
• Foods and medicines from their country of origin
• Limited information due to language barriers and
  newcomer status

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Center for New North Carolinians (CNNC) is part
of the department of Social Work at
UNC-Greensboro.
Providing research training, evaluation for the
state of North Carolina in addressing immigrant
issues collaboration with the government and
social organizations to enhance responsiveness to
immigrant needs and community support to provide
training and workshops.
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CNNC employs a diverse, culturally competent,
multi-lingual staff as Cultural Brokers.

• Cultural Brokers
• Undergraduate and Graduate Social Work Students
• Consultants

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• CNNC had two major aims
• Educational programs delivered by cultural
  brokers
• Lead swabs testing of homes

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Four major cultural groups were targeted
Africans, Latino, Laotian and Montagnard.
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Africans

• More than 10,000 Africans live in Guilford
  County
• Cultural brokers focused on the distribution of
  information at womens groups
• Written information was translated into Arabic

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Latino

• Majority of Latinos in N.C. come from Mexico,
  second largest group comes from Central America
• Distributed information after religious or
  recreational events
• Public Service Announcement (PSA) in Spanish

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Laotian

• Southeast Asian group form the highlands of Laos.
• 1000 Laotian live in Guilford County
• Laotian Youth Leaders of Tomorrow (LYLT) provided
  educational training and testing for their
  community
• Youth speak both English and Laotian
• Provides an educational component for their youth
• Time effective

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Montagnard

• Hill tribe people from the mountains of Vietnam
• 5000 Montagnard live in North Carolina (The
  largest Montagnard community outside of Vietnam)
• Cultural brokers began the lead paint project
  with an introduction to the Montagnard elders at
  a senior center
• Church sponsored events

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Other Immigrant/ Refugee populations served
Written information was translated into Serbo
Croatian
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Lessons learned and Recommendations

• Deliver services in culturally-grounded ways
  defined by the cultural brokers and unique to
  their community
• Develop rapport and trust
• Understand and respect limitations of leisure
  time among all immigrant communities
• Continue to explore resistance to receiving
  information
• Diversification of African and Latino groups
• Continued research on culturally competent
  practice