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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

Tell Your State PTA: Get Schools to Share Playgrounds!


playground locked with kids

School is back! But when classes end, does your school lock up its recreational facilities? Many Latino families live near schools that lock fields, courts, pools, and playgrounds before and after class—meaning kids miss physical, mental, and emotional benefits of physical activity and play. Tell your State PTA to help get schools to open school rec facilities after class with “Shared Use” or “Open Use” policies! Open or shared use policies can serve as a beacon of good health for local residents, boost community safety, and increase children’s opportunities for physical activity, which is scientifically proven to reduce disease risk and contribute to physical, mental, and social well-being. Open use policies allow a school to formally grant public access to its ...

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Share Cool Photos of Local Active Spaces (and Win!)



Have you and your kids ever wanted to go play, but didn’t have anywhere safe to go? Many Latino families live near schools that lock gyms, courts, pools, fields, and playgrounds before and after class—meaning kids miss the physical, emotional, and social benefits of physical activity and play. In a show of support for play, Salud America! and SaludToday invite you to snap a photo of a playground, field, pool, or other community rec facility that isn’t open outside of school time. Share that photo on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #ActiveSpaces, and we’ll share or like your post nationally and enter you into a random drawing for a Jawbone fitness tracker! It’s an easy way to show your support for kids and families who don’t have access to safe ...

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How to Fight for Breastfeeding in Your City



Breastfeeding is a scientifically proven way to reduce risk of disease and create a healthy future for kids and moms. But not all moms get breastfeeding support they need. Latina moms especially have less support for breastfeeding in hospitals, the workplace, and early child care settings than their white peers, according to a new Rivard Report article by Amanda Merck of Salud America!, a national Latino child health network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Merck's article highlights ways to increase breastfeeding support for Latina and all moms: Baby Café. Norma Sifuentes and Diana Montano, two San Antonio health workers, took advantage of a funding opportunity to create Baby Café. The facility is a ...

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Latinos Go from Tough Neighborhoods to Life-Saving Health Careers


Nicolas Kinney prepares to transport a patient (Tammerlin Drummond via KALW)

A California program trains Latino young men to become emergency medial technicians (EMTs), creating a path for success in areas where gangs and shoot-outs are all-too common, KALW reports. The five-month stipend program, EMS Corps, is part of the Alameda County Public Health Department. EMS Corps participants, who are ages 18-26 and mostly Latino or another minority, are be trained and educated to become EMTs. EMTs work with paramedics to provide medical care in the field during an emergency. They go through daily classes, tutoring, physical fitness, and professional and career development workshops. They also get life coaching and mentoring. “It takes them on a journey of discovery of who they are—what their strengths are and what they value most in this life,” life ...

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Study: Watching Too Much TV May Increase Risk of Dying from Blood Clots


marketing of unhealthy food kid remote TV

Spending too much time in front of the TV may increase your risk of dying from a blood clot in the lung, the American Heart News reports. A Japanese study tracked 86,000 people for 19 years, and 59 died of a pulmonary embolism. This condition, stemming from inactivity, is caused by blood clots that travel to the lungs from the legs. Researchers found that pulmonary embolism death increased by: 70% among those who watched TV 2.5-4.9 hours (versus those who watched less than 2.5 hours) 40% for each additional 2 hours of daily TV watching. 2.5 times among those who watched TV 5 or more hours. Although the study examined Japanese adults, the findings may be very relevant for U.S. adults, who watch far more TV. U.S. Latinos may face an especially high risk. Latino ...

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Latino Kids Need Your Help. Here’s How to Start.



Latino kids need your help. They have the nation's highest childhood obesity rate. They struggle to access healthy foods and drinks and physical activity. They are increasingly targeted by unhealthy food marketing. You're invited to join our free public webinar at 11 a.m. CST/ 12 p.m. EST on Tuesday, July 19, 2016, to get tools you can use to make a healthy change for Latino kids. The webinar—a partnership of Salud America! and Community Commons—will explore available resources, data, maps, case studies, and other tools that make it easy for you to start a healthy change to reduce Latino childhood obesity in your community. A healthy change can mean working with a local school to open playgrounds after school, pushing for policies that help new mothers to breastfeed their ...

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13 Effects of Fast Food on the Human Body



Latinos tend to live in neighborhoods with abundant fast food options and few sources of healthy, affordable foods, according to research by Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio (formerly SaludToday). What happens when you eat a lot of unhealthy food at restaurants? A new infographic by Healthline highlights 13 effects of eating highly processed, unhealthy food on the human body, including obesity: Fast food isn’t necessarily bad, but in many cases it’s highly processed and contains large amounts of carbohydrates, added sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt (sodium). These foods are often high in calories yet offer little or no nutritional value. When fast food frequently replaces nutritious foods in your diet, it can lead to poor nutrition, poor health, and weight gain. Tests in ...

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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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