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Volunteering for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s helps other people. It gives the volunteer a nice emotional boost, too.
So why not volunteer your “digital voice” or “actions”?
We at Salud America! invite you to take or start these 14 actions to promote health equity for Latino and all families this holiday season!
1. Help Prevent Birth Defects: Add a Warning Label on Unfortified Corn Masa Flour
Are the corn masa products you eat fortified with folic acid?
Because too many babies in the Latino community suffer from birth defects like spina bifida, UnidosUS and its partners submitted a citizen petition asking the FDA to require a warning label on unfortified corn masa flour and products.
The warning would alert consumers when corn masa flour, tortilla chips, tamales, or other corn masa products do not contain adequate folic acid. A lack of folic acid can increase the risk of a serious birth defect if a woman becomes pregnant.
“A warning label is a simple way to tell consumers of the risks posed by products that lack adequate levels of added folic acid—and to push food companies to fortify foods to protect people,” according to UnidosUS.
Here’s how you can speak up.
Submit a model comment created by Salud America! to address the UnidosUS petition!
2. Protect Latino Workers from the Harms of Extreme Heat
Heat can create hazardous working conditions for workers in labor-heavy outdoor industries, such as construction, maritime, and agriculture, which employs many Latinos.
To protect outdoor workers from extreme heat, the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are proposing a new rule to require employers to implement a heat emergency response and planning procedure, which includes providing water, shaded areas, and rest breaks.
Here’s your chance to speak up in support of workers’ rights.
Submit a model comment created by Salud America! to address the new standard that protects Latinos and all workers from the heat!
Comments close Dec. 30, 2024.
3. Download a ‘Health Equity Report Card’ for Your City with Local Data!
In May 2023, we updated our Health Equity Report Card to cover your county’s child opportunity score, environmental justice score, location affordability, and transit access.
The Health Equity Report Card, first launched in 2017, auto-generates Latino-focused and local data with interactive maps and comparative gauges. This can help you visualize and explore inequities in housing, transit, poverty, health care, food, and education.
You will see how your county stacks up in these health equity issues compared to your state and the nation.
Then you can share the Report Card with your local leaders to advocate for healthy change!
Get your Health Equity Report Card!
4. Quit Smoking!
Ready to quit smoking, but need help?
Enroll in Quitxt, a free English or Spanish text-message service that turns your phone into a personal “quit smoking” coach from UT Health San Antonio.
To join Quitxt, text “iquit” (for English) or “lodejo” (for Spanish) to 844-332-2058.
“We’re excited to share Quitxt to provide real-time help with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, handling stress, and much more, all on your phone,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! program at UT Health San Antonio, and also Quitxt, sponsored by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
“Quitting now can reduce your risk of chronic diseases, cancer, and a severe case of COVID-19. It can also improve air quality around you.”
5. Like Wordle, Strands, and Connections? Play Memory Games as Part of the Brain Health Registry!
Want to play memory and thinking tests and help millions of families with dementia?
The Brain Health Registry can help you do that.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) developed a registry for adults interested in conducting brain tests that can help the future creation of treatments for Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, and other brain disorders.
Now, they’re partnering with the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio to expand brain health research in the Texas region of the United States, through a partnership called STOP-AD.
Learn about the STOP-AD Brain Health Registry, how Alzheimer’s is affecting Latinos, and how clinical trials can help us tackle Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
JOIN THE BRAIN HEALTH REGISTRY!
6. Find Out If You Have Implicit Bias and What to Do Next!
Many people think they harbor no bias toward other people, or they believe they know their biases and don’t act on them.
But everyone has implicit bias.
Implicit biases are stereotypes that affect our understanding and decisions about others beyond our conscious control, but fortunately can be “rewired” toward more compassion for others.
Download the free Salud America! Action Pack “Find Out If You Have Implicit Bias and What to Do Next” to see if you have implicit bias. You will also learn from others who have overcome their own implicit bias, and encourage others to learn about implicit bias.
7. Start a School Food Pantry!
About 1 in 6 children are food insecure. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
Your school can help these kids!
Try the Salud America! “School Food Pantry Action Pack.” This is a free guide to help school personnel talk to decision-makers, work through logistics, and start a School Food Pantry to help hungry students and reduce local food insecurity.
A School Food Pantry accepts, stores, and redistributes donated and leftover food to students.
The Action Pack was created by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio.
Dr. Ramirez had input from Jenny Arredondo, nutrition director at San Antonio ISD. Arredondo started school food pantries on 10 campuses in 2017-18, based on a Texas law change led by Diego Bernal.
8. Pledge to Take Infection Control Training!
When you practice infection control consistently and confidently, it can help stop the spread of disease in healthcare settings and save lives.
This is why you and all frontline healthcare providers can publicly pledge to take training through the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Project Firstline program.
Project Firstline is a training and education collaborative that provides all healthcare workers, no matter their role or educational background, with access to the infection control information they need to protect themselves, their patients, and their coworkers from infectious disease threats.
Project Firstline offers training and educational resources on various infection control topics, including risk recognition and infection control basics related to COVID-19.
9. Volunteer for a Clinical Trial for Your Familia!
Cancer and Alzheimer’s hurt many of our abuelos, moms, dads, and others we love.
Clinical trials help us fight for our familia.
Clinical trials are studies that help researchers learn more to help slow, manage, and treat Alzheimer’s and cancer for current and future family members. But without Latino volunteers for clinical trials, the benefits may miss this group.
Visit our clinical trials page to find a clinical trial, read about hero volunteers, and more!
Search the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio’s Find a Clinical Trial database to learn more about available clinical trials and eligibility requirements.
Seek a cancer trial anywhere in the nation here.
“Latinos in clinical trials are not only helping themselves, but they’re also contributing to potential better treatments that can help their families in the future,” said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research and Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio.
10. Start ‘Handle With Care’ So Police Alert Schools if Kids Are Exposed to Trauma (Even If School is Closed or Virtual)!
60% of U.S. children have been exposed to violence, crime, or abuse.
These kids still have to go to class, virtually or in person. They carry a burden of trauma that can interfere with their behavior and grades. And schools don’t know there’s an issue at home.
Enter “Handle With Care.”
Download the free Salud America! “Handle With Care Action Pack” to start a Handle With Care program. In the program, police notify schools when they encounter children at a traumatic scene, so schools can provide support right away, even if operating virtually.
The Action Pack contains materials and technical assistance to start a conversation and plans for implementing a Handle With Care program. Over 65 U.S. cities have started such a program.
The Action Pack was created by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! Latino health equity program at UT Health San Antonio, with help from Andrea Darr, director of the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice, which started the first Handle With Care program in 2013.
11. Get Your City to Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis!
Racism is a public health crisis.
Systemic racism makes it harder for Latinos and other people of color to get healthcare, housing, transportation, education, employment, healthy food, safe treatment by police, and more.
Download the free Salud America! “Get Your City to Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis Action Pack“!
The Action Pack will help you gain feedback from local social justice groups and advocates of color.
It will also help you start a conversation with city leaders for a resolution to declare racism a public health issue along with a commitment to take action to change policies and practices. It will also help build local support.
12. Share Stories of Latinos Who Changed Their Hearts and Got the COVID-19 Vaccine!
To help move Latinos from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine confidence, Salud America! is uplifting the stories of real Latinos who overcame misinformation, got the vaccine, reconnected with family, and are helping end the pandemic.
Share these “change of heart” heroes in English or Spanish!
- Rosa Herrera read on Facebook that the vaccine would inject her with a microchip. She learned that was a myth. See exactly what changed her heart and pushed her to get the vaccine! (en español)
- Jesus Larralde was nervous about the vaccine’s possible side effects. His wife got the vaccine and was fine. See exactly what changed his heart and pushed him to get the vaccine! (en español)
- Helen Cordova thought the vaccine was rushed. But she did her research and learned the vaccine’s safety, and volunteered to be the first person in California to get the vaccine! See exactly what changed her heart! (en español)
Find COVID-19 vaccine locations near you in English or Spanish!
13. Help Your City Adopt Smoke-Free Multifamily Housing!
People who live in multifamily housing share air with their neighbors ─ including secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke contains over 70 cancer-causing chemicals, has killed over 2.5 million people, and can travel through doorways, halls, windows, ventilation systems, electrical outlets, and gaps around fixtures.
Download the free Salud America! Action Pack “Help Your City Adopt Smoke-Free Multifamily Housing” to help your city explore a smoke-free multifamily housing policy for common areas and individual units.
Experts say this can protect the health of tenants and staff of apartments, as well as save property owners money in unit maintenance, fire prevention, insurance, and reduced legal liability.
You can use model emails, graphics, and policies to explore a local smoke-free multifamily housing policy in your town.
14. Subscribe to the Only Latino Health Equity Podcast!
The “Salud Talks” podcast, from the team at Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio, is now live!
For each episode, listeners will hear from health equity experts—from grassroots movements to national organizations—on topics ranging from cultural representation, climate change, childhood trauma, mental health, and more.
Salud Talks episodes are released periodically.
Each episode is available wherever fine podcasts are downloaded, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Thank You!
Our Salud America! team, led by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, is thankful for the opportunity to drive messages of health equity across the nation.
Thank you for visiting our website. Thank you for your strong interest in health equity.
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
By The Numbers
142
Percent
Expected rise in Latino cancer cases in coming years
