New Orleans East will receive a portion of the $105 Million BP settlement awarded to coastal communities affected by the oil disaster, a settlement which will increase access to healthcare for Gulf Coast residents. The initiative will be led by the Alliance Institute, Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training and the New Orleans East Louisiana Community Health Center, in conjunction with the Gulf Region Health Outreach Program.
The Gulf Region Health Outreach Program (GRHOP) is a five-year-long program dedicated to strengthening healthcare, health literacy and resiliency of Gulf Coast communities affected by the BP oil spill, especially for members of the settlement class, the uninsured and medically underserved residents of the 17 affected coastal counties and parishes in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi. The Alliance Institute will be in charge of community involvement for the GRHOP.
Stephen Branberry, Executive Director of the Alliance Institute, says that the organization is honored to be working with nonprofit organizations across the Gulf Coast region as part of the GRHOP program.
“Immediately following the oil disaster, the Alliance Institute held listening sessions across the region and received feedback from citizens that the lack of access to adequate health care was a major concern. For us to now be working with organizations from those same communities is fulfilling and a testament to what can happen when communities are organized to give voice to their solutions for the issues that confront them,” Branberry says.
The New Orleans East Louisiana Community Health Center, which describes itself as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting our unique diversity and improving the quality of life of residents in the Greater New Orleans area, beginning in New Orleans East,” is also thrilled to be a part of the project.
“As a local community health center, we’re honored to provide high quality, affordable, primary and preventive health care services to the residents of this community. We see this collaboration as a positive endeavor for the advancement of a healthier community,” says Diem Nguyen, Chief Executive Officer of NOELA CHC.
GRHOP’s funding will also allow organizations such as the Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training (VIET) to increase work in the New Orleans East community. VIET, created in 2001, works to develop educational and economic training programs and act as a resource center for minority residents in Louisiana.
For more information about the GRHOP Initiative, visit GulfRegionHealthOutreach.com.
