Community collaborations and partnerships are necessary in health promotion in all phases of the research process. The purpose of this presentation is to share what we learned from our collaborative partnership with a community in providing culturally and linguistically appropriate breast health education to underserved Vietnamese women in Houston, Texas. Limitations and barriers of building community partnerships with the Vietnamese community will be presented. Some of the unforeseen barriers included:
a) inaccessibility of the target community and b) language barriers in designing the assessment and education tools due to the education and acculturation level of the women. How we were able to overcome these barriers will be presented. It was learned that we must make a great effort to gain knowledge of and respect for a community whose culture, values, and beliefs differ from our own. Only when there is direct interaction with the target population can we know and understand the needs and desires of their community. Recommendations for future projects will be included.
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.