Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116302

Diane Ashton, MD, MPH, March of Dimes National Office, 1275 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10605, 914-997-4232, dashton@marchofdimes.com, EmyLou A.S. Rodriguez, Office of the Medical Director, March of Dimes, 1275 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, NY 10605, and Aida L. Giachello, PhD, Midwest Latino Health Research, Training and Policy Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Midwest Latino health Res. Ctr, 1640 W. Roosevelt Rd. #636, Chicago, IL 60608.

In 2000, the Genetics Services Branch of MCHB of HRSA funded the Genetics Education Needs Evaluation (GENE) Project to investigate and improve consumer access to culturally- and linguistically- appropriate genetics information, resources and services in order to assist underserved populations in making informed decisions about their health. A major focus of this 5-year cooperative agreement, managed by the March of Dimes, was to support the development of community-level demonstration projects that identified and addressed local genetics-related information and service needs using community-based participatory approaches.

Two communities were selected to engage their stakeholders in assessing community needs and assets around genetics education – Flint and Lansing, MI, and Washington Heights/ Inwood (WH/I), NY. More than twenty dialogue groups were completed by the Michigan GENE Demonstration project to assess the genetics education needs of the African American community. The WH/I GENE Coalition conducted over four hundred face-to-face interviews and four focus groups to assess genetic knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of Latinos.

This session highlights the process of engaging communities in assessing genetics education needs and outlines a model for replication in other underserved communities. This includes the use of community based participatory action strategies to identify stakeholders and develop capacity building in the African American and Latino communities.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be informed of

• Strategies for engaging community stakeholders and building community capacity;
• Process and results of community-level genetics education needs assessments in the Latino and African American communities; and
• GENE Project best practices and lessons learned.

Keywords: Genetics, Underserved Populations

Related Web page: www.marchofdimes.com/geneproject

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.