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

Abstract #66607

Chetana Acharya, MS¹, Tanya Kim², Marcia Henning³, Stella Chao², and Thomas Burbacher, PhD⁴. (1) CEEH - COEP, University of Washington, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, 206-616-7566, cacharya@u.washington.edu, (2) International District Housing Alliance, 606 Maynard Ave S. Suite 105, Seattle, WA 98104, (3) Environmental Health Assessments, Washington State Department of Health, P.O. Box 47846, Olympia, WA 98504, (4) Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98105

Intergenerational bilingual environmental education programs are an effective and culturally competent way to disseminate vital health information into a community. Teens from Wilderness Inner-city Leadership Development (WILD), a youth community advocacy program conducted through the International District Housing Alliance, worked with outreach staff from the WA Department of Health and the UW Superfund Basic Research Program on a seafood safety education project. The project focuses on communicating health and safety information to Asian Pacific Islander communities around the Lower Duwamish River, a five-mile long federal Superfund site in Seattle. Resident fish and crab caught in the river have industrial chemical contamination, yet many limited-English communities continue to subsistence fish there. Although a seafood advisory has been issued for the Duwamish, further outreach is needed to convey the environmental health message. The WILD youth and agency staff designed a hands-on visual activity to engage community members around fish and shellfish consumption issues. These activities, conducted at senior meal sites, show the elders how to reduce their exposure to contaminants in the fish and shellfish. Project effectiveness was evaluated and results will be shared. This project has helped promote environmental health and justice stewardship in the WILD participants, and is a model for intergenerational community building. By empowering youth and elders, often the two disenfranchised ends of the population spectrum, WILD helps create an educated citizenry committed to community environmental health. This project was supported by NIEHS grant P42ES04696, King County NRSN WaterWorks grant and the WADOH-ATSDR cooperative agreement program.

Learning Objectives:

• * Recognize how partnerships can increase culturally competent information dissemination.
• * Develop programming to engage and empower youth and elders in the community.
• * Apply innovative outreach strategies to reach limited English speaking populations with environmental health information.

Keywords: Environmental Justice, Education

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.