Articles by Amanda Merck

#SaludTues Tweetchat 7/24: Walk 4 Change: Change Your Parks & Trails

July 17, 2018

Want to change your life? Walk. Walking can boost your health, the way you live, and your community. As a physical activity, walking changes your body physiologically, improving mental and physical health. As a lifestyle, walking in your local neighborhood and parks can enhance your social and environmental awareness. You'll see things you can’t see while driving. As a driver of community change, walking contributes to building a culture of health through peer-modeling and observational learning. You change your parks and trails simply by being there. Sharing what you see—good and bad—can encourage others to walk and advocate for sustainable, equitable change. UPDATE: Check out the recap on Wakelet. Join us for a #SaludTues Tweetchat on July 24, 2018, to tweet ...

Take a Stand to End Over-Policing in Walking and Biking Initiatives

July 11, 2018

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership (Safe Routes) is raising awareness to end over-policing as a safety solution in walking and biking initiatives. Racial profiling by police, for example, threatens drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists of color. These Latinos and other minorities, who already face less safe roads and fewer places to walk and bike, deal with a greater burden of traffic and pedestrian violations, too. Safe Routes wants you to stand up for minorities by sharing on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. “As walk and bike advocates, we need to come together to protect people in communities made vulnerable not only by missing and poorly maintained bike lanes and sidewalks and inequitable policies, but also by over-policing,” wrote Holly Nickel, coalitions and ...

Salud America! Talks Childhood Trauma on The Preschool Podcast

July 9, 2018

Our own Amanda Merck recently joined HiMama’s The Preschool Podcast to talk about addressing childhood trauma in early childcare and schools to build better futures for Latino and all children. HiMama, which offers tools to help educators improve childhood development, hosts The Preschool Podcast every Tuesday with its co-founder and CEO Ron Spreeuwenberg and a guest. Merck, who curates content for Salud America! on early childhood development, joined podcast episode #103, Impacts of Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences, on July 3, 2018. Merck spoke about the critical formative years from 0 to 5 in a child’s development and how childhood trauma, like abuse and poverty, affect a child’s body and brain. However, early childcare educators are rarely trained to deal with ...

CDC: Latino Students are Less Active than their Peers

June 21, 2018

Teens need 60 minutes every day of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity to reduce their risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Yet only one in four high school students (26.1%) met this recommendation, according to new CDC data. And the rates of physical activity were often worse among Latinos. Why? What can we do? The Data High school students in the U.S. are not on a good health trajectory, according to CDC’s new Youth Risk Behavior Survey released on June 15, 2018. The survey is part of the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. The system monitors health-related behaviors, usually developed in childhood and early adolescence. These behaviors contribute to the leading causes of early death among youth and adults in the United States. Today ...

How a New Bridge Rebuilt Community Trust and Pedestrian Safety

June 20, 2018

Cam Juarez didn’t want people to be disappointed, again. Years ago, a city project failed to deliver a promised new pedestrian bridge over a dangerous waterway in the Rose Neighborhood (92% Latino) in Tucson, Ariz. It would have improved walking and bicycling safety and connected people to a park and a nearby elementary school. Rose neighbors were skeptical when Juarez, then the coordinator for Pima County’s neighborhood reinvestment program, asked them to pitch ideas for fundable improvement projects. But Juarez bridged leader-resident trust—and replaced a pedestrian bridge that resembled the rickety old one in Indiana Jones with an amazing new bridge. The Dangerous Waterway Most times, the Rodeo Wash is dry. But during thunderstorms and rainy seasons, the ...

New Action Pack: Help Your School Support Students!

June 19, 2018

About half of U.S. children suffer abuse, poverty, parental incarceration. These kids face deep physical and mental scars that impair development, learning, and health. How can schools support and help students dealing with these issues? The new Salud America! “Help Your School Support Students Action Pack” is a free guide with coaching to help school personnel talk to decision-makers, build a support team, craft a system to identify and support students, and more! The Action Pack was created by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! Latino health program at UT Health San Antonio, with input from John Hernandez, who created a unique system to help support students at East Central ISD in San Antonio. Get the Action Pack! The Action Pack helps school ...

¡Por Vida! Program Makes Eating Out Healthier in San Antonio

June 14, 2018

Gilbert de Hoyos opened Barrio Barista because he enjoys serving coffee to West Side residents in San Antonio (67% Latino). He also likes to cook. So de Hoyos added a small menu. And he didn't want it full of unhealthy options, either. De Hoyos is among a growing number of eateries that have joined a city health program, ¡Por Vida!, that unites nutritionists with restaurants to promote healthier menu options. “San Antonio and especially the West Side have a reputation of not having healthy foods and I want to change that by cooking delicious foods that also support a healthy life," de Hoyos said. “It’s my way of giving back to the community." One of those options is his roasted vegetable tacos with remoulade sauce served on a corn tortilla, Kens5 reports. The ...

#SaludTues Tweetchat 6/19: Actions to Create More Trauma-Sensitive Schools and Communities

June 12, 2018

To become a productive adult, a child needs more than great academic experiences. Social and emotional learning experiences, for example, can instill responsibility, integrity, and justice in our youngest children. Schools, communities and healthcare professionals play a big role in addressing trauma and stimulating social and emotional development, which requires an understanding of how childhood trauma impacts kids’ brains, bodies, and behavior. We at Salud America! created an Action Pack to help your school take steps to become more trauma-informed/sensitive to reduce absenteeism and misconduct and help students become healthy, productive members of society. Let’s use #SaludTues on June 19, 2018, to see Action Pack and tweet how schools can become trauma-informed to ...

Soccer Field Wars: Latino Neighbors Win a Fight to Play

June 11, 2018

Omar Gonzalez and many of his neighbors love playing nightly pick-up soccer games on the fields at Harriet Tubman Elementary School in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Gonzalez never expected to get kicked off the field. But that's what happened one night when a local sports league, which had mostly white players in uniforms, showed a permit they had paid to use the fields. They asked the neighbors to stop their game and leave. Gonzalez and his neighbors were confused. No one had ever used a permit to play there on weeknights. So they started a battle to allow open and fair usage of the fields. Sports and field use across the country After-school sports are great for building youth leaders and boosting health. However, Latino kids are less likely than ...

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Amanda Merck

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