Playing can help a kid's healthy brain development. But many communities are not kid-play-friendly. Latino neighborhoods tend to lack safe places that welcome kids and multi-generational families to play. That's why KaBOOM! created the Play Everywhere Playbook. The Playbook helps cities design healthy play spaces with kids in mind. The Playbook is has four sections built on input from city and community leaders, health experts, urban planners and affected families: Fundamentals: defining what makes a space a PLAYce—wondrous, convenient, inviting, shared, unifying, challenging and intentional
Design guides: streets and sidewalks; parks trails, and public spaces; transit; multi-family housing; commercial spaces; civic spaces; and moveable and pop-up play
Case ...
Minorities don't trust police. Police don't trust minorities. You can see this dynamic in any viral video of police-associated violence across the nation. What is harder to see is how this "fraught relationship" impacts the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of both police officers and minorities like Latinos, according to a trustnottrauma.org report. That's why a new program is taking a new approach—trauma training—to rebuild police-community trust and relationships in Newark, N.J.
Why Newark?
Communities rely on police departments to "protect and serve." The police, in turn, rely on community support and cooperation. But this model doesn't always work in harmony, according to RAND. Newark (34% Latino) is a prime example. In 2011, New Jersey's American Civil ...
We want YOU for the Salud America! team! Salud America!, a national program to inspire people to drive community change for the health of Latino and all kids, is hiring for several positions: Digital Content Curator. This position mines Latino childhood health online resources to identify, collect, organize, write, and promote multimedia content (policies, case studies, resources, etc.) for the Salud America! website and e- and social communications in order to build awareness of Latino childhood health issues and drive policy and environmental change among stakeholders.
Scientific Writer. This position aims to provide high-quality, experienced scientific editorial skills to the development of manuscripts and other technical and lay-friendly publications produced by the ...
More than three of four Latinos worry about global warming and climate change, a higher worry rate than their non-Latinos peers, according to a recent English and Spanish survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Why are Latinos so worried? What policies can help? How willing are Latinos to take action, and how will that impact health equity and safer streets? Salud America! is excited to launch a three-part series exploring the issue of climate change for Latinos. Today we will tackle what climate change is, why Latinos are worried, and whether they should be. Part 2 will address what kinds of policies Latinos would support to address climate change. Part 3 will focus on a potential solution for both climate change and health equity.
What is Climate ...
Claudia Sanchez Lucas is described by many as humble, a trait learned from her mom and dad. Lucas is also strong and resilient, with a passion for helping people. Lucas has powerful curiosity that can one day help her push science in brave new directions. She’s growing her passion and curiosity as a master’s degree student in public health epidemiology at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, where she also earned a bachelor’s degree in health studies. She is excited to learn more about cancer epidemiology and neuroepidemiology, perhaps envisioning new interventions to stimulate brain health to help talented people maximize their mental capabilities even further. To further her training and education, Lucas applied for the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership ...
McDonald’s is removing cheeseburgers, shrinking French fry portions, and making chocolate milk less sugary in U.S. Happy Meals, in an effort to make its children's food more healthy, Reuters reports. The food company, first the first time, will set global limits for calories, sodium, saturated fat and added sugar in Happy Meals. The new standards will be implemented by June 2018. This is certainly a positive step. But it also begs the question: Can a Happy Meal really ever be healthy? This is an especially important question for Latino families. They tend to live in neighborhoods where fast food restaurants far outrank options for health food, according to a Salud America! research review. "Taken together, the changes do not transform burgers or chicken nuggets into ...
Your community can apply for a Safe Routes to Parks grant to increase equitable access and safe walking connections to parks. The JPB Foundation has provided a grant to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership to fund the Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program, which follows the Safe Routes to Park Framework, a collaborative effort between the National Partnership and the National Recreation and Parks Association. The framework provides a structured process by which communities can increase safe and equitable access to their parks and green spaces. The framework includes four main areas of activity: 1) Assessment, 2) Planning, 3) Implementation, and 4) Sustainability, with each area heavily infused with proactive community engagement. Grantee communities will ...
No parent should have to face the sheer agony of losing a baby. But it happened to Servando Salinas and Roxanne Alvarez. The San Antonio parents recently spent time at a relative's house. So Salinas and Alvarez had their eight-month-old daughter, Heaven, sleep in bed with them. When Salinas woke up, he noticed Heaven was not breathing. They called EMS, but the baby was pronounced dead at the scene, according to FOX-29. “I couldn't move. I couldn't stand. I was crying so much,” Salinas told Fox-29. Sadly, in two San Antonio zip codes—mostly Latino 78203 and 78220—Latina mothers have the highest infant death rates in the state, says a UT System study. That's why we are glad to see that San Antonio leaders, health advocates, parents, and groups are stepping up to ...
George Block has fought for children for a long time. When Block saw disadvantaged kids not able to swim at local pools in the 1970s in San Antonio (63% Latino population), he fought for a new aquatic center that would provide free swim programs for them. When Block jogged through a low-income neighborhood and heard Mexican soccer games blaring from homes, but low youth soccer participation in the 1980s, he drove changes to enable more play. He even helped launch San Antonio Sports, a foundation that builds new sports facilities and spurs school facilities to open publicly. So…what did Block and his team do in 2016 when he saw many San Antonio families not using these facilities to capacity? He stepped up again and created a literal “gateway” to promote family use of ...
