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Cliff Despres

Cliff Despres, who has more than a decade of experience in journalism and public relations, is communications director for Salud America! and its home base, the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio.

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Articles by Cliff Despres

How to Fight for Walkable Neighborhoods



What can you do to bring walkable streets to your neighborhood? Follow the example of Nicolas Rivard and Allison Hu. Rivard and Hu, urban designers in San Antonio, noticed that a road construction project in a largely Latino neighborhood was lacking shade, trees, and other walkable streetscape elements because of cost issues. So they organized a multi-pronged effort with neighbors, business partnerships, storytelling, petitions, and more to mobilize support and suggest design-specific elements that could improve the road's walkability—an effort that paid off when the city agreed to add street trees, separated sidewalks, and other streetscape elements to the road. Their work is featured in a new Rivard Report article and Salud Heroes story by Amanda Merck of Salud America!, a ...

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WINNER: Sarah Ramirez and the Great Fruit Rescue



Fruit was in danger. It was falling off trees, rotting. Not nourishing people in desperate need of healthy food. So Sarah Ramirez, a health advocate in Tulare County, Calif., started a program to pick up unused fresh produce from yards and donate it to the food bank. It gets healthy fruits and veggies into the hands of locals who need them. Now Ramirez won the Salud America! #SaludHeroes video voting contest! Watch her winning video or read her story about how she took action after noticing poverty, hunger, and a lack of access to healthy food in her 60% Latino farming community where much freshly grown produce goes to waste. Ramirez's Be Healthy Tulare group researched and developed a volunteer program to glean fruit from local homes, and donated it the food bank, ...

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How to Make Space for Physical Activity



Physical activity can help raise a healthier generation of kids in San Antonio, where there is high risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Complete streets, playful neighborhoods, and greenways are a few new ways to help create opportunities for physical activity, according to a new article in The Rivard Report by Amanda Merck of Salud America!, a national Latino childhood obesity prevention network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Merck suggests the city connect with groups that are already working to make the healthy choice the easy choice. For example, she suggests the Active Living Council of San Antonio—a public-private partnership of policymakers, business leaders, school officials, program ...

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Study: Latinos Not Eating as Healthy as Whites



More Americans are eating healthier, but a widening nutrition gap is separating Whites from Latinos and African Americans, according to a new study, the L.A. Times reports. The study, which examined 34,000 U.S. adults' diets from 2000-2012, found that 46% of Americans had "poor" diets in 2012, an improvement from 56% in 2000. Researchers also found Americans made several positive gains: cutting sugary drink intake in half, nearly doubling consumption whole grain consumption, and boosting intake of nuts, seeds, fish, and shellfish. But Latinos and African Americans didn't improve as much. According to the L.A. Times: Non-Latino blacks and Mexican Americans — the only two minority ethnic groups to be studied in the latest effort — were significantly less likely to have ...

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#SaludTues Tweetchat 6/21/16: Latinos and Zika Virus



A person bitten by a mosquito infected with Zika virus may experience fever, rash, and joint pain for a few days, but most people who get it won’t experience symptoms. So why is Zika virus such a big deal? Zika infection during pregnancy can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and outbreaks are happening frequently in both foreign and domestic lands. Let’s use #SaludTues to tweet about what Zika is, where the virus is spreading, what it means for summer travel, and most importantly how to prevent it. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “What Latinos Should Know about Zika” TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, June 21, 2016 WHERE: On ...

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6 Epic Ways to Start a Neighborhood Health Revolution


Salud Heroes of the Neighborhood

Neighborhood conditions can have major health effects. WATCH and VOTE for new Salud America! #SaludHeroes who made neighborhoods healthier places to live, learn, and play—and be entered in a random drawing to win a FREE T-shirt and jump rope! #SaludHeroes in the neighborhood are: How to Make a Walkable Neighborhood. Urban designers Nicolas Rivard and Allison Hu mobilized neighbors to request walkable streetscapes in San Antonio. Rescuing Unwanted Fruit. Sarah Ramirez increased healthy food access in Tulare County, Calif., by picking unused produce from yards and donating it to the food bank. Greenway to Health. Erica Whitfield and other health advocates redeveloped an abandoned alley in Lake Worth, Fla., into an attractive greenway to increase walkability and ...

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Latinos Live Longer than Whites. But Why?



U.S. Latinos have gained 2.6 years in life expectancy in the past 14 years, and live longer than whites and blacks, according to new CDC data, the Washington Post reports. Latinos have the highest life expectancy of the three groups: 81.8 years. This shows the "Hispanic paradox," in which Latinos have good longevity despite tending to have lower income, less education, less health coverage, and much higher rates of certain health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. Reasons for Latino longevity are unclear. Some experts cite Latinos' lower rates of smoking and drinking alcohol, or that they work more physically demanding jobs and are more fit. Some credit the population's younger age, compared to the white and black populations. Some say ...

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How to Tackle Obesity in the Early Childhood Years



Nearly 1 in 3 Latino kids is already overweight or obese by ages 2-5, an alarming trend that often continues into youth and adulthood. How can we prevent early childhood obesity? It will take public-private partnerships, more effective interventions, and more, according to a new report on a recent meeting of the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Roundtable, which engages leaders from multiple sectors to address obesity, includes Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of SaludToday, Salud America!, and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The Roundtable's new report covers lots of early childhood obesity questions. What's working to prevent early obesity? ...

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Health Crisis Surges in Puerto Rico


puerto-rico-health

Zika virus. A $73 billion debt crisis. Puerto Rico has been in the news a lot lately, but what's the truth about health in this unincorporated U.S. territory with a 99% Hispanic population? Our friends at the Kaiser Family Foundation put together a fantastic 8-part Q&A about Puerto Rico, including several health indicators. Here are some key takeaways: People are older. The percentage of adults age 65 and older rose 22% from 2006-2014. People have worse health overall. About 35% of adults in Puerto Rico report fair or poor general health, compared to 18% in the U.S. They also have higher HIV rates. More people have health insurance. Less people are uninsured in Puerto Rico (6%) than in the U.S. (12%). But almost half are covered by Medicaid due to high poverty, ...

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