Enhancing Capacity for Risk Communication in Vietnamese-American Communities

Objectives

The goals of this project are to 1) address a disaster preparedness gap by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate weather-related communication products and services to the Vietnamese-American coastal communities, 2) enable the communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico to reduce disaster impacts and reach recovery quickly, and 3) better equip weather communicators in messaging severe weather information to the Vietnamese-American community. Additionally, the products developed under through this project could benefit Vietnamese-American communities nationwide in minimizing disaster impacts and expediting recovery in other communities.

This project will be successful if the following objectives are achieved:

• Increase coastal communities’ capacity by implementing a severe weather outreach implementation plan that leverages partner capabilities to address community gaps and needs.
• Increase the coordination and communication between and amongst severe weather partners and with Vietnamese-American leaders to integrate innovative approaches aimed at improving severe weather communications and actions for coastal community residents.
• Increase the availability of culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach products and messages to effectively reach Vietnamese-Americans.
• Increase awareness of the Vietnamese-American community to effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazardous weather events.
• Increase weather communicators’ awareness of Vietnamese-American community’s barriers to accessing information and share effective strategies to address them.
• Increase understanding of the effectiveness of the outreach strategies and scaling of the project to ensure sustainability beyond the grant cycle.
   

Methodology

Through the early discussions in 2023 amongst the New Orleans and Mobile WFOs, BPSOS, and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, we identified the need for a more comprehensive plan to bridge the language gap between severe weather messaging and the Vietnamese-American community in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Although BPSOS developed limited translation services for the WFO pro bono, there is much work to be done to effectively prepare the Vietnamese-American community to manage impacts from natural and anthropogenic disasters. The approach described below is based on the input from community members and partners to develop an intentional and coordinated outreach effort to address language and reading barriers to a well-established community that is especially vulnerable to severe weather.

Activities
Activity 1: Understand Needs and Develop Plan to Address Them

Activity 1a: Form an integrated leadership team 
The integrated leadership team (LT) will be composed of representatives from the New Orleans and Mobile WFO’s, BPSOS, Sea Grant, media and local government(s). The purpose of this team is to continue previous conversations related to developing appropriate translated or new weather products for Vietnamese-American families and businesses. The LT will meet bimonthly in the project periods to inform the needs assessment and develop the implementation plan and provide advisory services throughout the life of the project. In addition to the LT membership listed above a local representative from NOAA’s Disaster Preparedness Program will be invited to join the LT.

Activity 1b: Conduct a needs assessment
The LT will provide input directly and gather additional information from their colleagues and people they serve as it relates to outreach product and service needs that will improve severe weather messaging to Vietnamese-American communities. This will likely involve a face-to-face meeting with all partners to describe needs. Sea Grant will facilitate the needs assessment. This could also include BPSOS hosting a focus group and inviting Vietnamese-American community members to understand their perception of the current availability of information, accessibility, and how they would like communications to be delivered going forward. The inclusion of Vietnamese community members’ awareness/attitudes/behaviors will help determine: 1) what community members know, 2) identify new information we should develop, and 3) what communication channels to use to disseminate the messages that will reach them.

Activity 1c: Develop an implementation plan
Once the needs are clearly articulated the LT will develop a detailed strategy to address the priority needs and approaches to address them. LT members or others from within their organization will develop a plan of work and identify ways they can contribute to implementing the plan. The plan will include specific types of outreach products and services that will be developed and the people who will be responsible for different aspects of developing and disseminating them. A representative from BPSOS will lead the implementation activities with significant, leveraged support from others.

Activity 2: Develop and Disseminate Outreach Products and Services

Activity 2a:  Develop outreach products and services
Although the specific types of outreach products and services will be identified in activity 1 we know that the NWS identified a need to translate some of their existing products and infographics. This will likely be produced to provide information at a second-grade reading level (due to limited language proficiency of our target population). Additional products and services that may be considered include short videos and live captioning to reach Vietnamese speaking audiences. Outreach products may also be developed for weather communicators (e.g. NWS, local media) to help them understand communications barriers related to sharing information with Vietnamese-American communities and strategies and approaches that enable communicators to overcome them.

Activity 2b: Disseminate outreach products and services
In order to facilitate bi-directional flow of information some efforts will target the Vietnamese-American community and other efforts will target the weather communication communities. Feedback and input from one community will be shared with the other community through the LT, which includes membership and representatives from both of the communities. The LT will serve as a bridge to foster this bi-direction flow of information.

In collaboration with the Integrated Warning Team (IWT) meetings held by the WFO offices, the LT will engage with IWT members who can assist in magnifying the message to their audiences, many of which will reach the Vietnamese-Americans living in more rural areas of the counties.

At training sessions, BPSOS will provide a translator, who will be actively involved in these training sessions to ensure that the information can be shared in an effective way. In addition, if identified as a priority in activity 1, translator(s) will work with local media and NWS to provide real-time translation services through those outlets to help disseminate accurate and timely information.

The severe weather communications community will participate in a training to be held at the Disaster Response Center or similar location that will raise awareness of language and cultural barrier issues in the region. The training will help media and NWS representatives increase their understanding of translation needs, potential approaches, products that can be shared, and other resources that are available to them to help message critical information to the Vietnamese-American and other communities that face language barriers.

BPSOS will work with the NWS to create pre-developed and planned messages that can be quickly disseminated when severe weather threatens the area and after the threat has passed. This will include information that can be shared via SMS, online, via phone, on TV and through other platforms. Through a focused communications campaign we will reach Vietnamese-American communities in advance with a variety of products to also assist with understanding other weather-related information that may not be translated. Examples of products could include culturally appropriate infographics, videos, ticker line at bottom of tv broadcast, website/social media, weather alerts texted to people to pre-subscribe, and other weather alert alternatives for those without a smart phone.

Outreach Activities to Vietnamese-American Coastal Communities
To address specific barriers including limited English proficiency, limited literacy, low-income, low educational attainment, and lack of infrastructure support, this project will implement evidence-based models to improve access to appropriate resources developed by Vietnamese population. We categorize the priority population into three segments (subpopulations): A) the self-sufficient and B) the non-self-sufficient with support, and C) the not-self-sufficient without support. This segmentation lends itself to the multicomponent interventions covered in the CDC’s Guide to Community Preventive Services.

Segment A, making up 10-15% of the Vietnamese population, includes those that have means to access resources and services, speak English (does not have to depend on translators), and know how to navigate technology and weather information. Awareness through mass media and social media campaigns combined with periodic reminders may be sufficient to help this segment achieve awareness and improve preparedness for disasters.

For Segment B, making up 75% - 85% of the Vietnamese population, includes those who cannot access resources on their own but can rely on a friend or family member (husband or adult child who speaks English) to navigate for resources. The small and ethnic mass media may help raise knowledge and awareness on the planning and preparedness for disasters.

For Segment C, making up 5%-10%, includes homebound and withdrawn, who may not listen to the radio or read newspapers. This segment requires interactive engagement outreach including training workshops, direct mailing, and translation services.  

BPSOS has established a vast network of grassroots, regional, and local partners, and sustained relationships with Vietnamese-language mass media including Saigon Radio, Viet Radio, Vietnam Hai Ngoai Radio, and Vietnam America TV to coordinate regional-wide communication campaigns on relevant topics, reaching 30,000 Vietnamese individuals throughout the Gulf of Mexico region including Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

The project activities are designed to be sustainable, equitable, and inclusive. We will apply evidence-based strategies drawn from the CDC-recommended Behavioral and Social Research Framework and BPSOS’ 44 years of experience serving the Vietnamese-American community.

Project activities are broken into two categories: 1) high-quality peer-to-peer interactive engagements and 2) education-focused communication campaigns.

Drawing on our Consortium’s 52 years of experience and BPSOS’ 44 years of experience working with the Vietnamese population, we have discovered that personalized interactions help increase confidence among racial/ethnic Vietnamese populations. This project will amplify trusted voices within the community to provide high quality, interactive peer-to-peer engagement activities. BPSOS’ bilingual project staff will provide in-language (Vietnamese and English), personalized communications to address disaster emergency issues, build confidence, and provide support services to help community members access appropriate resources. Our interactive activities will reach at least 500 Vietnamese individuals through 6 community events and 4 training workshops.

In addition, we will conduct education-focused promotion campaigns, reaching at least 30,000 Vietnamese through a variety of communication channels targeting different subgroups within the Vietnamese community, including those with various levels of English proficiency, health literacy, digital literacy, and science literacy. We will post at least 12 messages in English and Vietnamese languages on our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter)), disseminate 8 messages on ethnic media (TV, radio, print), newsletters, blogs, and email blasts, and distribute flyers and mailers to the community-at-large.

Activity 3: Evaluate the effectiveness of programming
To evaluate the effectiveness of the project in meeting its intended outcomes, we will use the needs assessment and a comprehensive evaluation plan. The results from the needs assessment and implementation planning process will provide the foundation for a summative evaluation of the program. It is anticipated that at minimum the evaluation will be used to determine if:

1. There is an increased understanding of severe weather risks by Vietnamese-American community member.
2. This information has informed decisions by members of the Vietnamese-American community.
3. Severe weather communicators increased their understanding of non-English speaking/reading communication barriers and how to address them.
4. There are new or novel products and/or approaches used by the severe weather communications community to address translation or other needs for non-English speakers/readers;.
5. Additional support can be secured to continue this work beyond the project period.

A mixed methods approach will be used to collect the evaluation information. This will take the form of training surveys administered after training events, one-on-one interviews, and online surveys. 
 

Rationale

In regions prone to extreme weather patterns, especially during hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, residents experience heightened levels of stress and uncertainty. This situation is further exacerbated for those employed in the seafood industry, whose livelihoods depend on working in water-based environments.

Beginning in the 1960’s many Vietnamese refugees were displaced from their homes due to war but found opportunities to become part of the fishing sector along the Northern Gulf of Mexico (Bounds, 2011). Since then, the Vietnamese-American population in the region has flourished, becoming an integral part of the area’s identity. Migration from Vietnam persists, with extended family members and others from Vietnam continuing to migrate to this region (Figure 2). According to U.S. Census American Community Survey (2022), there are approximately 50,000 Vietnamese-Southeast Asian (VNSE) members in Mississippi (7,971), Alabama (10,609), and Louisiana (30,544).

In the Gulf States, economic impoverishment and limited language capacity exacerbate health and economic issues within these communities. In the state of Alabama and Mississippi, Vietnamese communities form a large proportion of the Limited English Proficiency (LEP) populations, comprising some 12% and 13% of LEP persons in each respective state (US Census, 2011). LEP individuals face heightened vulnerability to natural disasters, particularly hurricanes, floods, and severe weather due to their reliance on coastal livelihoods. According to the American Community Survey (ACS) 2022, 80% of Vietnamese individuals prefer to communicate in their native language (US Census, 2022). As a result of LEP, they often encounter barriers to accessing disaster preparedness information in their language, hindering their ability to prepare for and recover from disaster impacts in a timely manner. Consequently, they risk compromising their safety and that of their families.

Vietnamese-Americans in this region, are particularly affected by natural disasters as their livelihoods are bound to the shrimping and fishing industry. A recent study that examined the Vietnamese-American fishing community in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama included surveys of 334 fishers in the region (Schewe et al., 2021). Key findings from that report indicated that 69-70% of respondents felt they read and spoke “very little” or “no” English and participants identified language as being the biggest barrier in communicating with fisheries agencies.  This language barrier does not just affect fisheries management, but the barrier can adversely impact their safety when they do not receive accurate and timely weather-related information in an understandable way. In a study conducted by Boat People SOS in 2011 in partnership with the George Mason University’s School of Social Work, the study revealed that small enclaves of Vietnamese such as those in Alabama and Mississippi often lack the community infrastructure, including linguistically competent service providers, culturally appropriate service programs, and in-language media outlets, to address their needs (Obcemea et al., 2011).