Massachusetts is the home of the third largest Haitian community (60,000) in the United States. The impetus for action resulted from the recognition that substance abuse was a growing concern for Haitians. The Substance Abuse Committee, comprising of educators, public health professionals and community activists in existence since 1988, came together to raise awareness of substance abuse and other drugs in the Haitian community. This project produces annually 5,000 calendars which are distributed nationally to members of the Haitian community and agencies providing services to this population.
This presentation will demonstrate how art as a medium is incorporated with a message in this Substance Abuse Prevention Tool. The presenters will illustrate how essential culturally and linguistically appropriate knowledge of the community, public health and substance abuse prevention are to developing such a program. This discussion will outline the process used to develop the message and the process the artist uses to convey this message through art for the calendar. The presentation will also explore how to celebrate how cultural and ethnic diversity by incorporating arts and language in health education. It will emphasize how to engage a cultural community to focus on behavior change in an innovative way. It demonstrates how community driven strategies to promote healthy behaviors can be successful.
Learning Objectives: 1)Participants will learn how to engage community members in developing culturally specific health messages for Haitians and other linguistic populations. 2)How to assess a proper medium to disseminate health education messages. 3)Acquire knowledge about using Art as a means to develop culturally and linguistically relevant Substance Abuse Prevention Education materials
Keywords: Community Preventive Services, Substance Abuse Prevention
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Massachusetts Haitian Substance Abuse Committee
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.