In the Latino-majority and rural region of Paso Del Norte, which encompasses southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas, many families struggling to make ends meet and easy access to affordable healthy foods is lacking. A band of food justice activists were tired of watching the region’s youth grow up without a sense of connection to their land, bodies, and heritage. La Semilla Food Center was born out of this frustration, their mission being to build a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in Paso Del Norte. La Semilla established its Youth Food Policy Council (YFPC) to build awareness around food issues and create healthier changes in communities. By the end of the first YFPC, 10 youth had been totally immersed in the food system, learning how polices big and small ...
A five year comprehensive action plan to reduce chronic disease & obesity in Arizona, was endorsed in 2005, by former governor, Janet Napolitano. The plan notes the importance of "Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Physical Environment" as well as "Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Community." Objectives and strategies along with action steps for improving the built environment and increasing recreation time are described. Some examples of planned objectives for the state include: Educate and promote healthy design of Arizona communities
Recommend that Arizona communities assess and plan for healthy designs or re-designs of urban and rural areas
Integrate a culture of physical activity throughout Arizona communities
Deliver a health marketing campaign about ...
This factsheet provides an overview of what Complete Streets in urban and rural areas look like, as well as an explanation of how a statewide Complete Streets policy can benefit ...
A memorandum produced by TxDOT, dated March 23, 2011, announcing TxDOT's commitment to designing multimodal transportation facilities. Guidelines for improvements to urbanized and rural settings are provided. Read more about this policy ...
Cancer just surpassed heart disease as the No. 1 killer of Latinos. Yet, as the Latino population surges, there aren't enough Latino researchers who are working to uncover new ways to treat cancer or pave way for novel studies of cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic issues to prevent Latinos from suffering worse cancer outcomes. But there is good news. The number of Latino cancer researchers is starting to grow, thanks to Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training, a program that encourages master's-level students and professionals to pursue a doctoral degree and careers studying how cancer affects Latinos differently. Éxito! participants attend a five-day summer institute that enhances understanding of cancer and research, encourages networking among peers and leaders in ...
Editor's Note: Apply by March 15 for the 2013 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Elie Benavidez, a master’s-degree student at The University of Texas at San Antonio, already is making strides to improve the lives of Latinos. She teaches elementary-school students and volunteers her time to increase local access to healthy food. Now Benavidez, inspired by her mother’s cancer battle, is considering seeking a doctoral degree and doing cancer research. That’s why she and 19 other master’s-level students or health professionals joined the Institute for Health Promotion Research’s second-annual Summer Institute of Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training on June 7-11, 2012, in San Antonio. Exito! encourages participants to pursue a doctoral ...
Throughout the country, people are coming together with a shared vision, strong leadership, and commitment to making needed and lasting changes that broadly improve community vitality. This is happening in large urban settings and small rural ones; it's happening in places with tremendous resources and in places with few resources to draw from; it's happening in places with relatively few health challenges and in places where the challenges are many and daunting. One place is San Bernardino, Calif. In 2006, officials launched the San Bernardino Healthy Community Initiative. Since then, 17 of the county's 24 cities have launched their own healthy city initiatives, including features such as Safe Routes to School, community gardens, shared resources and more. Watch more about ...
Editor's Note: This is the testimonial of a graduate of the 2011 Summer Institute of Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. Read more testimonials here or apply by March 1 for the 2012 Èxito! program. David Irizarry
McAllen, Texas David Irizarry wasn’t sure where his career path was heading. With a background in political science and biology, he eventually decided to pursue a master’s degree in public health at the Texas A&M Health Science Center’s School of Rural Public Health in McAllen, Texas, where he also works as an administrative intern at a local hospital and a research assistant on campus. To further refine his career path and learn about doctoral programs, he joined Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training—which aims to increase ...
Editor’s Note: This is a 20-part series featuring new research briefs on Latino childhood obesity, nutrition, physical activity and more by the 20 grantees of Salud America! Part 9 is Dr. Javier Rosado. Find all briefs here. Dr. Javier Rosado
“Paying Attention to Children’s Weight in Pediatric Primary Care” In his Salud America! pilot research project, Dr. Javier Rosado of Florida State University assessed how much weight-related medical attention children get during well-child checkups at a pediatric community health center in a rural, largely Latino migrant farm-worker community in Florida. Key preliminary findings include: some parents are not concerned about their child’s weight;
obesity among girls raised the highest concern. The child’s gender also ...
