Salud para su Corozon (Health for your Heart) is an innovative community-based outreach and prevention project funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the NIH's Office of Research on Minority Health. The aim of the project is to increase awareness and knowledge, and promote heart-healthy lifestyle behaviors among low-income, low-acculturated, and less-educated Latinos 18-54 years of age. This segment of the population was targeted because of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, poor access to health information, services and screening, and limited awareness of cardiovascular risk factors and methods of prevention. Salud para su Carozon was shaped by social marketing principles, core cultural values of Latinos, and formative research. In addition, an alliance of community business and health leaders was integral to all aspects of the initiative. Program strategies included the development of both print mass media education materials and products. The purpose of this presentation is to describe results of the pilot project in Washington, D.C. Current efforts to disseminate Salud para su Corozon findings, materials, and products to Latino communities nationally are now ongoing. Major efforts to engage the Latino community through developing strategic performance partnerships with the National Council of La Raza and the National Promotores Network are now underway to facilitate community-based lay educators' training and community education. The key steps and strategies used to mobilize the community for heart health and the results to date will also be presented.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to: 1) Describe how the Latino community was involved in planning, implementing, disseminating evaluating the Salud para su Corozon initiative, 2) State the tools and materails that were developed by the Initiative to reach Latinos, and 3) Describe the steps in developing strategic partnerships with the National Council of LaRaza and the National Promotoras Network to promote heart health in Latino communities
Keywords: Latinos, Lay Health Workers
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute--National Institutes of Health
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.