a. Provide grants to community-based organizations to conduct special research, demonstration, and evaluation projects for targeted at-risk racial and ethnic minority populations and to support ongoing community-based programs that are designed to reduce or eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in the State;

b. Develop and implement model public and private partnerships in racial and ethnic minority communities for health awareness campaigns and to improve the access, acceptability, and use of public health services;

c. Serve as an information and resource center for racial and ethnic minority specific health information and data and develop a clearinghouse to collate and organize data on a county-by-county basis and disseminate it upon request to interested parties;

d. Review, recommend, and develop culturally appropriate health education materials;

e. Provide assistance to local school districts to develop programs in elementary and secondary schools which stress good nutrition and healthy lifestyles;

f. Function as an advocate for the adoption and implementation of effective measures to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations in this State, which measures should lead to the elimination of disparities among the various racial and ethnic populations of this State with respect to access to high-quality health care, utilization of health care services, and health status;

g. Improve existing data systems to ensure that the health information that is collected includes specific race and ethnicity identifiers;

h. Review the programs of the Departments of Health, Human Services, Community Affairs, and Education and any other department of State government, as appropriate, that concern multicultural or minority health and make recommendations to the departments that will enable them to better coordinate and improve the effectiveness of their efforts;

i. Develop a Statewide plan for increasing the number of racial and ethnic minority health care professionals which includes recommendations for the financing mechanisms and recruitment strategies necessary to carry out the plan;

j. Work collaboratively with colleges of medicine and dentistry in this State and other health care professional training programs to develop cultural and language competency courses that are designed to address the problem of racial and ethnicity disparities in health care access, utilization, treatment decisions, quality, and outcomes;

k. Develop recommendations for the most effective means of providing outreach to racial and ethnic minority communities throughout the State to ensure their maximum participation in publicly funded health benefits programs;

l. Seek to establish a Statewide alliance with community-based agencies and organizations, health care facilities, health care provider organizations, managed care organizations, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to promote the objectives of the office; and

m. Evaluate multicultural or racial and ethnic minority health programs in other states to assess their efficacy and potential for replication in this State and make recommendations regarding the adoption of such programs, as appropriate.

L.1991, c.401, s.3; amended 2001, c.205, s.4; 2012, c.17, s.123.