During three additional follow-up meetings, the decision was made to engage the Hmong population and to enlist the assistance of local community based organizations that were influential in the Hmong community. Hmong was selected due to size of the population, the level of unmet need and availability of meeting space for future events. 3 additional meetings were held with the Hmong community leaders, who were very reluctant in the beginning to work with us in outreach to their communities. This reluctance, as we have learned during our conversations with the community leaders, is based on a near lifelong experience of many different organizations coming and going and making many unfulfilled promises of assistance. These organizations are described as treating the community more as a 'research project' rather than a community with a vibrant background with true need. With our assurances that we were not conducting a research project, and with the assistance and direction of the local community leaders, an educational forum was identified as an appropriate first step.

The goals of the local community for this project include:

• Ensuring that the community was aware of the Mental Health Services Act and currently available mental health services
• Assist in the process of getting people from their community involved in continued planning of a new system that would be accessible to many individuals in unique ways.
• Ensure that ALL services were provided in a 'culturally accessible' manner.

Contact was made throughout the local Asian community. Local COEC partners joined and were actively involved in meetings with the community leaders to discuss the logistics of the event and provide additional education about our individual organizations. The event was attended by 65-70 individuals. The initial 5 hour long forum was held at the McLane High School on November 12th, 2005. The true highlight of this event was not totally expected - it was the interaction that was created between the Mental Health Director and the local community. According to community leaders this was the first time that many of the community members felt comfortable discussing their issues regarding mental health and this forum gave them an opportunity to air issues in a safe environment. Additionally, the four advocacy groups gave individual presentations about their organizations and ways that the community could use their individual services.

Hmong translation services were offered to the community. This event also had a significant number of Cambodian participants and fortunately a Cambodian translator was available. Childcare was not offered at this event. Families had been contacted and their personal preference was to have children present with them throughout the event. Such was the case as there were 8 children in attendance throughout the day.

County participation has been excellent, with the county devoting personnel resources to the success of this event. Individual county employees - including the Mental Health Director - offered to provide transportation to community members that needed assistance in getting to the event.

This in-depth project has continued in Fresno despite many changes in the local internal organizations involved. MHA of the Greater Central Valley has organized a Steering Committee comprised of a wide cross-section of organizations and individuals representing many non-traditional organizations interested in community outreach. They will be hosting a series of events in the Spring of 2007 that will bring together the community based organization community and begin the dialog of Outreach and Involvement. We look forward to assisting with the continuing efforts in the Central Valley.