What We Do

HBCW raises hepatitis B awareness in various ways and at various levels: partnering with local, state, and national partners; developing and distributing culturally appropriate outreach materials and resources; and providing presentations and screenings to high risk communities.

Annual Hepatitis B Forum

Every May, HBCW kicks off hepatitis awareness month with the Annual Hepatitis B Forum. On May 10,  2011, over 120 participants attended this interactive evening. Leaders from Virginia Mason Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Harborview Medical Center, International Community Health Services (ICHS), representatives from local health jurisdictions and the state health department, hospitals, clinics, colleagues from community based organizations, and Coalition volunteers were present.

The evening began with the awards presentation to Xuan Man from Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department for her work with the Vietnamese community.

Several community partners shared their own hepatitis B projects:  Ms. Man spoke about the Vietnamese Engagement work in Tacoma; Assaye Abunie shared upcoming projects in the Ethiopian community; and Edison Tsui, Tony Vo, and Rosa Nguyen launched their personal digital stories about hepatitis B. 

Participants also had the opportunity to view displays from three other partners:  the HBV Research Network, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and UW's Team HBV. 

Our thanks to all those who participated and attended! Photos and the digital stories will be posted soon - be sure to check back.

Hepatitis B Community Engagement Project

In summer 2009, the Hepatitis B Coalition of WA and International Community Health Services (ICHS) discussed expanding current grassroots efforts to better address chronic hepatitis B in the Seattle and Puget Sound area. Discussions resulted in the Hepatitis B Community Engagement Project, a unique and innovative collaborative and mobilization effort. The project was organic and made possible through each partner’s community networks, shared resources, and mutual but non-duplicative goals.

The project seeks to raise and expand awareness and action among those populations identified by CDC as high risk for chronic hepatitis B, including immigrants, refugees, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and East Africans. It also aims to increase appropriate adult immunization and to remove the hepatitis B stigma among these populations, pregnant mothers who are positive, and those who are chronically infected and their family and household members.

This led to 26 "community conversations" held in the fall of 2009 with service providers and community members via group discussions and individual interviews. These discussion goals were to strengthen and expand partnerships, assess awareness levels, discover barriers to education and treatment, and elicit recommendations for culturally appropriate health messages and strategies.

Input, lessons learned, and materials developed from these conversations were shared at the Community Launch in April 2010 and highlighted at HBCW’s May 2010 Annual Hepatitis B Forum. Resources developed from these conversations were distributed via flash drives, and can be viewed and downloaded here.  The Engagement Project was recently posted on the Health & Human Services' National Partnership for Action site; view it here.

If you were involved in these conversations, or want more information, contact Kim Nguyen at 206.830.5156.