The Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly (CLESE) was founded by twelve leaders of ethnic organizations in 1989 as a result of a comprehensive ethnic elderly needs assessment conducted in the city of Chicago that examined the needs of immigrant, refugee and migrant older adults. The purpose of the study was to find out why ethnic elderly were under-represented in the utilization of traditional social services. The needs assessment conducted 1,500 personal interviews in ten languages with older adults from twelve ethnic groups. The results showed that ethnic elderly needed services, were eligible for services, but were not receiving them due to barriers of language and culture.
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