Persons living in rural settings face increasingly more challenges to their health and quality of life than urban dwellers. To date research on the possible associations of hazardous environmental exposures on the health of underserved rural populations has been insufficient. Consequently, little is known about sources and types of environmental agents that underserved rural communities are preferentially exposed. Culturally sensitive education and awareness projects, like the “Outreach Strategy for Equity in Environmental Issues”, have begun the process to inform, educate, and empower people of color on issues of environmental hazards that may exist in their communities. There are additional stages to the process, such as producing action agendas targeted to communities impacted disproportionately by environmental risks, as well as those responsible for safeguarding this group from present and future environmental harm. The “Two Georgias” controversy of the mid-1980s sparked state-led efforts to address the chasm between the extraordinary growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the economic stagnation of rural Georgia. In 2000, that chasm still exists. In rural Georgian there is a critical need to provide culturally specific education responding to causes of health conditions that may have environmental connections. Communities of color and the poor lack awareness and education on environmental risks and access to information to relate these risks to their health. The objective of this paper is to describe interventions that can enable Georgia rural communities of color receive culturally specific education that results in an empowered community equipped to respond locally to the causes of environmental health conditions.
See www.deblarassoc.comLearning Objectives: N/A
Keywords: Environmental Health, Rural Communities
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: DEBLAR & ASSOCIATES, INC.
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Lawrence P King and Deborah E Barrett Ph.D. are co-owners of DEBLAR & Associates, Inc. a minority owned professional consulting firm