A Note from Newsletter Committee Chair, Terrance Campbell

Community-Based Public Health Caucus Newsletter

Table of Contents

A Note from the Editor ............... 1

CBPH Caucus Funding and Sustainability ..........................

1

Stories From the Field:

“Growing Healthy Communities Project 2011” .......................

2

“Supporting Vulnerable Women Through Their Cancer Journey: A Model That Works” .................................

3

Keeping Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds in the Workplace ..............

4

Story of Impact ........................... 5

More Stories from the Field: “Kenya and Back: Community-

Based Public Health Research Partnerships” .......................

6

Spring Issue, 2012

c/o U-M School of Public Health

1415 Washington Heights

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029

www.cbphcaucus.org

In the Winter issue, I challenged readers to help non-public health people to think about how they can actively engage in the process of enhancing public health. For this issue I want you to think about occupational health as a tool for Prevention and Wellness across the Lifespan. In 1983, a 12-year old young man from Flint was given the opportunity to actively engage in becoming a public health professional armed with a paper route and an Atari 800 computer. He didn´t have a clue that his 3-year long endeavor of building and sustaining a social enterprise would prepare him to be an AC Rochester (now Delphi) co-op student his junior and senior years of high school or a Civil Engineering co-op student his freshman through junior years of college.

Let´s fast forward to 2011 where that same young man (that’s me) is a Computer and Information Systems Engineer of 26+ years who has ac-quired 2 masters degrees and is completing a PhD in Information Technology focused on health disparity reduction. The significance of this story is that I have been given several OPPORTUNITIES to develop into the professional that I am today. Unfortunately, opportunities for our youth like this today are greatly reduced. Moreover, much of the workforce mobilization conversation nationally is focused only on adults.

If we are to be truly competitive in a digitally connected knowledge-driven economy, we have to be more purposeful in creating opportunities that positively impact occupational opportunities for young workers today, so that they can develop behaviors (competencies) to become gainfully employed, taxpaying professionals who are globally competitive in the future. The future of the country depends on it; seriously.

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continued on page 2

CBPH Caucus Funding and Sustainability

As you may know, since we were established in 2000, we have been fortunate to have the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Funding from the Foundation has supported our scholarships, meeting activities, and a wonderful Caucus support staff and committed volunteers that help make everything happen! Funding from Kellogg ends this fall in November 2012 after APHA. Last year, with the changes in financial support for the Caucus, we formed the Ad Hoc Committee on Fund Development, which is charged with identifying ways to maintain Caucus activities. This includes identifying sources of revenue and volunteer resources, while being aware of how the changes may impact our affiliation with APHA.

continued on page 2

Community and Youth Members—

Need help getting to APHA?

May 31st—Application for Travel Scholarships for community representatives (including youth) to assist with their expenses for attendance at the

APHA Annual Meeting will be available.

June 1st—APHA announces if your abstract was accepted. Registration and Housing will also be

available at that time.

June 13th—End of day Completed applications

are due. No Exceptions!

August 16th– End of Early-Bird discounted rate for registration. All fees must be paid by this time

to take advantage of lower rates.

For full details, go to the Caucus website: www.cbphcaucus.org.

See you in San Francisco!

Travel Scholarships to APHA

By Tara Hayden and Janine Jurkowski CBPH Caucus Ad Hoc Committee on

Chair Fund Development Chair

Community-Based Public Health Caucus News Page 2

Part of this function has been to review the activities and identify current or future activities that are fundable and/or sustainable without funds through member volunteers and other available resources. We also are considering partnerships with other local or national organizations, (i.e.: APHA) to identify mutual goals and seek funding together. While the Ad-Hoc Committee has spent a lot of time thinking and discussing the best way to keep the Caucus thriving, each Work Group , NCBON, and the Youth Council are brainstorming, have come up with, and are implementing great ideas to support their activities. In the coming months, we will be sending more communications to ask your feedback and assistance as we consider the following ideas:

Member dues or fees to support APHA activities,

Establishing a 501c(3),

Partnering to apply for grant funding and,

Volunteer structures and opportunities. We want to continue to hear from you! What do you value about the CBPH Caucus? What activities should we be sure to maintain? Do you have ideas for funding, volunteer, or organizational resources? To start, we're asking for your feedback via a MEMBER SURVEY. Please click here to respond to this very short survey. We look forward to your input as the CBPH Caucus transitions to this new chapter of celebrating the Community as the Heart of Public Health.

CBPH Caucus Funding and Sustainability (continued from pg 1)

A Note from Newsletter Committee Chair (continued from pg 1)

In closing, I have one more story and I will make it brief; promise. Bill Gates was 20 years old when he sold the world on the dream he called Microsoft. However, did you know that he sold his first computer pro-gram at the age of 17? We have to be more vigilant individually and collectively in actively engaging our youth in activities that positively impact their occupational health seriously. For they are fighting against very stiff global competitors, but together we can do mighty things. CARPE DIEM

Stories from the Field

“Growing Healthy Communities Project 2011” By: Amar Kanekar, Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

The main focus of this project in Little Rock, Arkansas, was to help contribute to growing a healthier University District community by in-creasing access to healthy foods and increasing physical activity. To reach these goals, we provided a garden training to 30 University Dis-trict residents For their attendance they received a free garden bed, soil compost, fruit and vegetable plants. The City of Little Rock pro-vided the compost and delivered it to the resident’s homes while volun-teers helped construct the garden beds and delivered the plants. Addi-tionally, we hosted a wellness fair on the University of Arkansas-Little

Rock (UALR) campus for University District residents to help increase access to physical activity. Moreover, the 203 residents who participated were granted a free 1-year gym membership to UALR’s fitness center. Lastly, we focused on increasing education of healthy nutrition by provid-ing a cooking class program called "Cooking Rocks!" for children and their parents in which they learned how to prepare healthier meals. All of these activities were successfully conducted as a part of the Growing Healthy Communities Project this past year in 2011.

Page 3 Spring Issue, 2012

“Supporting Vulnerable Women Through Their Cancer Journey: A Model That Works” By: Florencia Gonzalez In the United States, Latina cancer survivors appear to suffer greater distress related to a cancer diagnosis and treatment than non-Latina Caucasian women, largely due to lack of access to healthcare and socio-economic disparities.1 Women in this situation need comprehensive and culturally competent services to help them cope with the physical and mental stress during diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.2 However, there is an acknowledged gap in the availability of adequate support interventions for minority groups.3 Nueva Vida (NV) is a non-profit organization in the Washington Metropolitan Area that advocates for and facilitates the timely access of state-of-the-art, life-saving cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment services. Cancer survivors are offered peer counseling, individual therapy, support groups and mind-body therapy. Beyond service provision, NV has demonstrated that a community-based organization can make significant contributions to psychosocial research, thus increasing the understanding of the social, cultural, and healthcare system factors that impact quality of life and survivorship experiences of Latina breast cancer survivors. Through community-based participatory research (CBPR), these studies help fill the gap on much needed research around cancer disparities among Latinas. In a recent CBPR project with the Catholic University of America, NV tested the effectiveness of its comprehensive service model on quality of life and distress levels. Among the 90 breast cancer survivors who participated, findings indicated that after NV intervention, there was a significant increase in quality of life and corresponding decrease in distress levels. Findings from this study demonstrated that community-based organizations, like NV, which provide comprehensive psychosocial support, could significantly impact the quality of life of Latina cancer survivors. Results from these types of studies have and will continue to shape the provision of services for minorities at local and national levels. Study funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in partnership with Drs. James Zabora and Karlynn BrintzenhofeSzoc of the National Catholic School of Social Service of the Catholic University of America.

About Nueva Vida: Nueva Vida is a survivor-driven cancer care organization, non-profit, 501(c)3, that provides a variety of culturally sensitive cancer support services for Latina women in the Washington, DC metropolitan areas, Baltimore, and Richmond. Its mission is to inform, support, and empower Latina women whose lives are affected by cancer, and to advocate for and facilitate the timely access to state of the art cancer care, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and care for all Hispanic women. Every year, Nueva Vida services over 3, 500 Latina women and their families and is a resource to countless more as our healthcare partners understand the need for our services in order to provide comprehensive care for Hispanic women. For further information, please contact: Florencia Gonzalez, Research and Evaluation Program Manager, research@nueva-vida.org.

Stories from the Field (continued)

1. Nápoles-Springer AM, Santoyo J, Houston K, Pérez-

Stable EJ, Stewart AL. Patients' perceptions of cultural factors affecting the quality of their medical encounters. Health Expect. 2005; 8:4-17.

2. Sheppard VB, Figueiredo M, Cañar J, Goodman M, Caicedo L, Kaufman A, Norling G, Mandelblatt J. Latina a Latina: Developing a breast cancer decision support inter-vention Psycho oncology. 2008 Apr 17(4)383-91.

3. Buki LP, Garces DM, Hinestrosa MC, Kogan L, Carrillo IY, French B. Latina breast cancer survivors’ lived experi-ences: Diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. Cultural Diver-sity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. 2008; 14(2): 163-167

Nueva Vida Cancer Survivors

"Keeping Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds in the Workplace"

By: Andrea Brown, Healthy African American Families II, Los Angeles, CA (Submitted by Loretta Jones, Executive Director)

We always help others, but do we save enough time to help ourselves? If you are guilty of not cherishing the amazing person that you are, Healthy African American Families has developed 100 Acts of Kindness to Yourself.

Community-Based Public Health Caucus News Page 4

Healthy Workplace Tips:

Submitted by CBPHC Newsletter Editor, Terrance R. Campbell- MA Ed, MSISM, PhD

Candidate, & Deputy Director - YOUR Center

My office at one of my client sites is on the 6th floor and through-out the day I travel between the 2nd and 6th numerous times. I have put a list of things to do today on my office wall that I have to look at before sit-ting at my computer. The list says, "Good morning! Make sure that you do any two things on this list today (a) eat some oatmeal or a cup of yo-gurt before starting work; (b) use the stairs to get to the 6th floor at least once for every hour you are in the office; or (c) walk to lunch if the weather will allow. I started using this list in February 2012 and since then:

I have lost 15 + pounds I have more energy through-out the day I am less stressed through-out the day

What is your

best tip for

staying

healthy in

your workplace?

Email your best

“staying healthy”

tip to the CBPH

Caucus Newsletter

Committee for

publication in

future newsletters! Send to

cbphcaucus@umich.edu

CBPH Caucus Work Groups Monthly Meetings:

Membership Development—3rd Monday, 12p EDT Policy and Advocacy—2nd Wednesday, 1p EDT Presentations and Publications—2nd Thursday, 12p EDT Newsletter Committee—2nd Thursday, 1p EDT

National Community Based Organization

Network

Monthly Meeting

4th Tuesday, 2p EDT

Page 5 Spring Issue, 2012

By: Sara Aghajanian, Communications Coordinator, ORBIS International (former CBPH Caucus student assistant) We often hear that the public health workforce is made up of people from a variety of backgrounds and fields of interest. Michael Hernández is one of those unique individuals. “I found a calling working in public health and working in community settings with underprivileged kids, with teenagers and with families,” says Hernández, past-chair of the CBPH Caucus Policy Work Group and chair-elect of the Caucus. “I have great joy at the end of the day about the things that I have accomplished or the things that I will be accomplishing with the communities that I work with.” He has over 20 years of experience in client relations and community service. He also is a trained chef. Hernández started cooking at a young age, assisting his grandmother and mother in the kitchen. “I would just pull the chair up to the table…help clean beans and pound flour for the tortillas as a little kid.” By the time he was 10 years old he was preparing the family meal in between various football, baseball and basketball practices. He later trained under several well-known chefs while in college. Hernández is currently a policy advisor for The Monday Campaign, a project of the Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University. The program was part of the Harlem Health Promotion Center that is one of 37 Prevention Research Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The campaign focuses on providing the community with weekly information to promote better health and prevent chronic diseases. At The Monday Campaign, Hernández is responsible for reaching community members and creating partnerships in order to promote healthy behaviors. He believes that all communities face similar issues including lack of food security, lack of health literacy, and access to fresh foods. “It’s a matter of helping these communities to become empowered and educated.” Before working in New York City, Hernández mentored Latino teens in the Mission District of San Francisco with the organization Accion Latina. It was here that he began to discover the challenges to proper nutrition faced by young people. “When I began working with kids and started really noticing the types of foods that were available to them and what they chose to eat…it was a literal turning in my stomach that made me want to go ahead and try to educate these youngsters on proper nutrition and more importantly cooking.” Hernández’s college background is in psychology. With no formal public health degree, he immersed himself into learning as much as possible about public health and nutrition education. “I can honestly say that

the interest was there… the passion became so strong, that I wanted to do it so therefore I took it upon myself to get educated” says Hernández. Hernández serves on the Executive Board of the Public Health Association of New York City (PHANYC) among several other leadership roles. He was introduced to the Caucus through his membership in APHA and at the suggestion of colleague, Renee Bayer, who is a member of the Caucus support staff. He attended his first meeting in 2009, where he became part of the Policy Work Group. Hernández refers to the Caucus as a hybrid organization because it allows APHA members, public health professionals and community members, to meet and share ideas. He looks forward to being a part of the Caucus as it expands and gains more membership.

“The Caucus has afforded me the opportunity to really interface with community members,” he says, “We learn the most from working with the representatives from the community.”

Story of Impact—Michael Hernández, CBPH Caucus Chair-Elect

Are you coming to APHA 2012? Join other Caucus members and our Work Groups at the Annual Meeting!

Community-Based Public Health Caucus News Page 6

“Kenya and Back: Community-Based Public Health Research Partnerships” By Priscila Bercea

This past summer, as a graduate student in public health, I had the wonderful op-portunity to partner with Global Hope Network International (GHNI). GHNI is an emergency relief and development organization that seeks to improve the quality of life of the world’s “hidden and hurting.” As an organization devoted to alleviating extreme poverty, they focus on the most marginalized people groups in underserved communities in over 38 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Employing a unique partnership model called “Transformational Commu-nity Development (TCD)”, GHNI regional staff works to create sustainable solutions to poverty through advo-cacy, mentorship and collaborations with local government Ministries and NGOs. TCD is a holistic approach tackling five major factors of poverty including: water, income, education, food, and wellness.

My impetus for completing this three-month field internship was to expand and improve the wellness component of GHNI’s TCD model in a cluster of four partner villages in rural Isiolo, Kenya. The main objective of this study was to administer a health questionnaire to 100 households (approximately 650 people) in part-ner villages surrounding Isiolo. The health topics assessed included family nutrition, family and child health, maternal stress and health, and household sanitation and hygiene practices. The health assessment was meant to be a foundation for future efforts aimed at improving the health of men, women, and children. Addi-tionally, I conducted several other projects to help meet the immediate health needs of these communities. A

weeklong Community Health Worker training of 30 men and women and sev-eral public health campaigns aimed at infection prevention and control efforts in the region were pivotal in improving health education and access to health ser-vices in these rural and remote villages. This work was foundational and repre-sented an effective and successful collaboration between academia, govern-ment, NGOs, and community members. As a student of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, I was privileged to help GHNI network with key stakeholders and build stronger community-based partnerships that tangibly meet the immediate health needs of villagers while paving the way to long-term health improvements in this rural part of the world.

Priscila Bercea, CBPH Caucus student assistant, just received her Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology. Our thanks and best wishes!

More Stories from the Field

CBPH Caucus Newsletter Committee: These CBPH Caucus members meet monthly to plan and oversee newsletter production.

Terrance Campbell, Editor (YOUR Center, Flint MI) Pluscedia Williams, Co-Editor (Healthy African American Families II, Los Angeles CA) Loretta Jones, Co-Editor (Healthy African American Families II, Los Angeles CA) Mary Ann Evans, Co-Editor (Health Educator, Illinois Public Schools, Chicago, IL)

External Editorial Board: These individuals have volunteered to read, edit and write articles, and think of ways to link the CBPH Caucus to a broader community.

Bedelia Brown: LAD of Southeast Michigan TaMara Campbell: YOUR Center, Beautifully-Me, and The Examiner Regina Campbell: Vanguard CDC Milwaukee Junction Small Business Center Manager Helena Chapman: Center for Diagnostics, Advanced Medicine and Telemedicine (CEDIMAT) Fred Lumpkin: Information Systems Resources and the University of Phoenix (Metro Detroit) Marica Mackey: University of Detroit-Mercy and WDIV (Detroit) Wade Soloman, IT Consultant and University of Phoenix (Metro-Detroit)

Dan Zematis: Detroit Medical Center and University of Phoenix (Metro-Detroit)

Erratum

From the Winter Newslet-ter Edition: The correct title for External Editor, Regina Ann Campbell, should have been listed as Vanguard CDC Milwaukee Junction Small Business Center Manager