Last night, I attended Dia de Salud at Centro Hispano (819 South Freedom Blvd, Provo, UT 84601) hosted by Community Health Connect. Maria Lopez was giving a presentation on healthy eating and diabetes friendly foods. She presents on the first Tuesday of every month.
Turnout was decent (9 adults, 4 teenagers, and a bunch of kids), but everyone was very attentive and stayed the full hour. Mrs. Lopez's presentation seemed interactive and very engaging.
Two Spanish-speaking volunteers, a LPN and an EMT, also conducted blood sugar and blood pressure testing. They wondered how effective the blood sugar test was since many of them had just eaten.
Her food was not only healthy, but looked and tasted wonderful too!
Some attendees were not able to report how they heard about Dia de Salud. The event is advertised through flyers, posters, and health educators/professionals at Centro Hispano, Community Health Connect, Mountainlands, and UCHD. Teresa Tavares also advertises at community English classes she supervises. They have also spread word through Spanish newspapers and TV news programs. The poster was modified to be more culturally appealing based on feedback from key informants.
Mrs. Lopez's daughter, Elsie, usually supervises this event as an intern for Community Health Connect. Lisa Schiffman, MPH, also provides support and health communications consultation.
2 comments:
When I worked at United Way we helped promote this event. Teresa is wonderful to work with - she came with me on presentations I had to do at companies with Spanish-speaking employees. She always gave them info about Centro Hispano and all the programs they offer, so that could be how some of these attendees found out about Dia de Salud.
I wish the turnout was higher for this event... they put so much effort into all the programs at Centro Hispano, and receive a lot of support from United Way... but its useless if the Hispanic community doesnt take advantage of it.
Sounds like there's a need for an evaluation or needs assessment to determine why there's a disconnect between the community members and current community resources/event/organizations. I'm so curious about the determinants of the under-utilization. Anyone have any insight?
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