The American Heart Association (AHA) has received a $4 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Foundation in support of linguistically and culturally appropriate stroke awareness materials for communities in and around Minnesota, Minn Post reports.

The goal of the three-year, $4.7 million initiative is to close the gap between delay times nonwhite stroke patients face compared to those of white stroke patients. Research conducted by Haitham Hussein, a neurologist at the University of Minnesota and former board president of the AHA in the Twin Cities, found that Hmong American stroke patients had an average delay of four hours arriving at the emergency room after a stroke’s onset compared to white American patients. The specific languages to be used in the awareness and prevention materials have yet to be determined.

“So much of the language or availability of education, prevention, information, [and] awareness [concerning strokes] is all in English or Spanish, which leaves out entire populations of people, particularly in Minnesota with the changing demographics and even more aligned, changing demographics in rural areas,” said Lauren Rauscher, a national executive in the Mission Advancement division of the AHA, told Minn Post. “[The materials] will be developed in partnership with communities, so it will be a trans-creation process, where it’s not simply translating into different languages but understanding substantive meaning and cultural context.”

(Photo credit: FG Trade Latin)