U.S. Spends $23 Million on Culturally, 
Linguistically Diverse COVID-19 
Outreach for Minorities






Dealing with a devastated economy and the worst unemployment 
crisis in history, the U.S. government is quietly spending $23 million 
on “culturally and linguistically diverse” COVID-19 outreach and 
education in racial and ethnic minority and disadvantaged 
communities. The goal is to develop a national and statewide 
network of public and community-based organizations that will 
help mitigate the virus’s disproportionate impact among that 
demographic, according to one of the recently published 
grant announcements. A separate allocation will revive an 
Obama-era program that gave leftist groups tens of millions 
of dollars to help poor, minority and indigenous communities 
attain “environmental justice.” Under that project the 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reopen the 
State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement Program 
(SEJCA) to help “underserved communities” and 
“vulnerable populations” deal with COVID-19.

The biggest chunk of money, $22 million, will come from the 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which 
just launched a
 National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities. 
The agency’s Office of Minority Health (OMH) will dole out 
the cash to “community-based organizations” that are considered 
“trusted and usual information sources for racial and ethnic 
minority, rural and disadvantaged communities.” The organizations, 
most likely leftist groups, will use the taxpayer dollars to 
“disseminate effective response, recovery and resilience 
strategies and ensure service linkages for racial and ethnic minority,
 rural and disadvantaged communities hardest hit by the COVID-19
pandemic.” This includes identifying areas with minority and 
disadvantaged people at substantially greater risk of contracting 
the virus and adverse outcomes due to prevalence of underlying 
health conditions such as  hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, 
obesity, asthma, and COPD/lung disease as well as structural and 
systemic barriers to physical distancing and challenges to accessing 
healthcare and social services. The money will flow for up to three 
years so the community groups can document and distribute 
“lessons learned” and other findings.

Here is why HHS, whose mission is to enhance and protect the 
health and well-being of all Americans, is dedicating tens of 
millions of dollars to this new venture: “Emerging data suggests 
racial and ethnic minority populations are experiencing 
disproportionate impact and worse health outcomes from COVID-19,” 
according to the grant document. “Past public health crises, 
like the H1N1 pandemic and Zika epidemic, have demonstrated 
and amplified the vulnerability of these populations. Specifically, 
when combined with a greater baseline prevalence of underlying 
health conditions, a public health crisis like COVID-19 further 
exacerbates the higher morbidity and mortality for racial and 
ethnic minority communities. Due to lack of resources and limited 
capacity to provide healthcare and social services, rural communities 
are also vulnerable to adverse COVID-19 outcomes in the 
immediate and long term.”

The EPA will dedicate $1 million to the coronavirus minority cause 
by bringing back Obama’s wasteful environmental justice initiative 
that filled the coffers of numerous leftist groups, including those 
that help illegal immigrants. Under the new project, nonprofits 
will work with underserved communities to understand, promote 
and integrate approaches to provide meaningful and measurable 
improvements to public health. The agency identifies underserved 
community as those with “environmental justice concerns and/or 
vulnerable populations, including minority, low income, rural, 
tribal, indigenous, and homeless populations.” In a document 
attached to the grant announcement, the EPA goes into tremendous 
detail about its new initiative to address the impacts of the COVID-19 
pandemic on urban and rural low-income and minority communities.

Examples of eligible projects related to COVID-19 include the 
development of outreach programs to educate underserved and 
vulnerable populations about EPA-approved disinfectants and how 
to properly use them as well as managing trash removal within 
communities; “Healthy Homes” campaigns to share information 
about in-home environmental and health hazards that may increase 
vulnerability due to extended periods indoors resulting from local 
stay-at-home orders; other activities that educate, raise public 
knowledge and awareness toward achieving behavioral changes 
that improve health or prevent environmental pollution. To encourage 
participation the government will offer childcare, free disinfectants, 
translation services and material in “appropriate literacy levels for 
the impacted communities with environmental justice concerns.”




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