The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #55827

Dores Jay-Pang, MA¹, Paul Villas², Letty Gomez¹, Dorren Garza², and Rebecca Garza¹. (1) REACH Promotora Community Coalition, Migrant Health Promotion, P.O. Box 337, Progreso, TX 78579, (2) UTPA Border Health Office, 1201 W. University Dr., Edinburg, TX 78539

Type 2 diabetes disproportionately affects Hispanics. Compared with whites, Hispanics are 1.8 times more likely to have diagnosed diabetes. Deaths from diabetes are 55% more frequent on the Texas-Mexico Border than in the state of Texas. In 1999 Migrant Health Promotion received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the REACH Promotora Community Coalition. The Coalition developed a Community Action Plan to reduce the impact of Type 2 diabetes in three communities located in the Rio Grande Valley. In this session facilitators will present the role of the Promotora Community Coalition in designing and implementing the Community Action Plan, the role of the Promotora as a change agent, and the use of data in improving and eliminating health disparities. The presenters will share the basic components of capacity building, training, program development and evaluation. Facilitators will present the baseline evaluation data. The evaluation plan addresses capacity building, community/systems change, change among the change agents, as well as, widespread risk/protective behavior change, and health disparity reduction.

Learning Objectives:

• Motivate a diverse group of community members develop a plan for the elimination of health disparities
• Utilize the Promotora model in a multi-faceted, grassroots campaign to promote healthy living.
• Interpret the community change data to continue and improve the plan to eliminate health disparities.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.