Adrianna Acevedo-Fontanez celebrates her Puerto Rican heritage through music and food, such as using “el castero” to stew rice or fighting for “el pegao.” But she also knows that Puerto Ricans face dire health issues. That is why, when she sees people in need, she helps them. Her empathetic spirit and hard work as a community health educator is helping her address issues like lack of healthcare and lack of cancer screening among women. Fontanez is currently in the final phase of her master’s degree in epidemiology and is a community health educator at the University of Puerto Rico / MD Anderson Partnership for Excellence in Cancer Research at the UPR Comprehensive Cancer Center. To further her training and education, Fontanez applied for the Éxito! Latino Cancer ...
Ricardo Rocha believes anyone can be a hero and improve local healthy food access. Even someone like him. Someone who grew up in a poor family that toiled to put food on the table in Mexico. Someone who immigrated to the deserts of New Mexico, and eventually Denver (31% Latino). Someone who was a struggling, undocumented high-school student. “I was not doing very well in high school. Someone there told me about the College Assistance Migrant Program," Rocha said. "That helped get me into [Metropolitan State University of Denver],” Rocha said. “I learned a lot about what it really meant to belong somewhere." Rocha wanted to do more than "belong somewhere." He wanted to make that somewhere better. So, when he noticed many people trying and failing to find healthy food ...
U.S. children's sugary drink consumption has declined over the past 15 years, but rates remain higher than federal dietary guidelines and among Latinos and other minorities, according to a new report by Healthy Eating Research. The new report cites "clear evidence" that sugary drink consumption increases a child's risk for overweight, obesity, and dental cavities. It also has insulin resistance and caffeine-related affects. These health consequences are especially worrisome for Latino kids, who consume more sugary drinks—soda, sports and energy drinks, sugary fruit juices, and flavored milk—than the average child at all ages, according to a Salud America! research review. "Reducing [sugary drink] consumption would help improve children’s health by decreasing the risk for ...
Sonia Fragoso developed a passion to help other people thanks to her parents, who gave up their own desires and worked hard to give her and her siblings a better life. Now Fragoso gives back and helps out every chance she gets. For example, she spent her high school and college careers tutoring and mentoring underprivileged students, as well as the homeless. This also sparked her interest in STEM and pursuing public health as a career. Fragoso now works as a research assistant in analytical research and pathogen laboratories at UT Health San Antonio. She aims to bridge gaps in personalized medicine, and tailor medications to benefit the Latino population. To further her training and education, Fragoso applied for the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. ...
If you're in the hospital, your health and your pocketbook are taking a hit. A TV station in Seattle (6.5% Latino) tried a unique way—buying debt from people's medical expenses, then forgiving it(!)—to improve the lives of locals dealing with cancer, The Hill reports. Buy why?
'Big Issues with the Bills' TV station KIRO reporter Jesse Jones – a cancer survivor himself – reported a story about a cancer patient that was struggling to pay her bills and couldn’t afford further treatments. Many Latinos face this situation. 27% of Latinos have no usual health care provider and 15% have no health insurance, according to a Salud America! research review. These Latinos often end up seeking routine healthcare in the emergency room, which can be very costly. After his ...
States are not keeping up with shifting demographics to meet family's child care needs. Every year since 2006, Child Care Aware® of America has published a set of state fact sheets to illustrate how states measure up on areas of quality, affordability, and access to child care. Across all 50 states, the cost of center-based infant care averaged more than 40% of the median income for single mothers, far higher than the 7% threshold established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to Child Care Aware® of America. In 2015, 42% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family. Latina mothers are more likely than white mothers to be the breadwinners, but they make lower ...
What’s better than waking up to an encouraging text message? Iris Guzman, thanks in part to supportive texts each morning from her father and her experiences as a first-generation Mexican-American, has developed a similar caring nature for the health and welfare of Latinos. Guzman, who is from Nayarit, Mexico, is currently a second-year master’s-degree student in public health at UCLA’s Department of Community Health Sciences. She has a consistent desire to research the social, cultural, and environmental determinants of health. Particularly, she wants to study these determinants in order to reduce and eliminate health inequities in the Latino population. To further her training and education, Guzman applied for the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training ...
Open jobs sit unfilled for months at a time in McKinney, Texas (19.24% Latino). Retail, restaurants, and construction businesses can't find workers. The cause? The people who can fill those jobs can't afford to live in McKinney—the average home price is $340,000. "Just think about the salary it takes to afford a house like that, and then to maintain it. You just can't do it," McKinney Mayor George Fuller told Channel 5 NBC. "You can get a job, but you can't afford housing." Affordable housing is a rising need in many large and growing cities across the nation. San Antonio, for example, recently started an affordable housing task force to address its own shortage. San Antonio City Council member Shirley Gonzales is leading a push in her district, too. Heck, even Eva ...
Amazon, one of the biggest American companies, made it clear that public transit is an essential component for choosing a site for their second headquarters. No matter what side of the "Amazon headquarters" debate you land, public transit is a pretty reasonable public good to request from a city because it plays a major role in health, equity, economic development, and sustainability. The thing is, public transit success depends not only on local investment to expand and improve service, but also commitment from federal partners. Yet, the federal government is proposing to eliminate the Capital Investment Grant program, which matches local funds to build new transit systems and upgrade existing systems. Transportation for America created a guidebook, Fight for Your Ride: An ...
