Coalitions between academic research settings and community agencies have been shown to have a great impact in terms of behavior change in the community, and represents a great venue to disseminate health promotion and disease prevention programs among underserved populations. It has been shown that low-income Hispanic women represent a segment of the population that tends to be poorly served due to a variety of factors such as lack of transportation, language barriers, etc. In the past five years, Memphis has received a great influx of Hispanics, particularly due to employment opportunities. One of social issues to be addressed with recent immigration is the health status and access to health care among the newcomers. Since this population recently arrived in this area, this represents a great opportunity to design prevention programs to deter them from engaging in high risk behaviors as well as to promote accessibility to health care, especially preventive screening. The focus of this presentation will be to describe an effective partnership developed by the University of Memphis Center for Community Health and the Women's, Infant, and Children (WIC) program with the purpose of developing women's health programs targeted at low-income Hispanic women. This partnership includes a needs assessment and intervention development in cancer prevention screening and family planning among low-income Hispanic women attending WIC clinics in Shelby County. The development of the partnership (e.g., proposed methodology, financial arrangements, credibility issues, etc.), roles of agencies, strategies used, and benefits and compromises from both parties will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: To become acquainted with a successful partnership between an academic research setting and a community agency.
Keywords: Coalition, Hispanic
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.