Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109938

Guillermo Gomez¹, Idida Perez², and Rochelle Davis¹. (1) Illinois Healthy Schools Campaign, 205 W. Monroe St, 4th floor, Chicago, IL 60606, 312-419-1810, ggomez@healthyschoolscampaign.org, (2) West Town Leadership United, 1116 North Kedzie, Chicago, IL 60651

Objective: Schools serving minority and low-income students suffer disproportionately from environmental hazards,include poor indoor air quality and nutritionally poor food that contribute to high incidence of asthma episodes and a high prevalence rate of obesity in children. The project has four aims: 1) Understand the impact of the school environment, and the impact of school policies, on asthma and obesity; 2) Develop a common language between "professionals" and "community members/parents" to activate school interventions; 3) Evaluate two different models of organizing in a school-based settings; one using popular education methods, the other a Family Focused Leadership and Organizing Model; 4) Create dialogue between schools, community stakeholders, and health providers, facilitating the reduction of health disparities. Methods. The project is guided by a participatory research framework calling for the active involvement of people (parents, community leaders) in a collective assessment trained to assess the environmental realities in order to transform it. In the first phase involved a process to strengthen their skills and capacities to transform schools and communities. A participatory development planning process identified health disparities leading to the development of school action plan interventions. Collaborators facilitated capacity-building by providing training and technical assistance. Findings: Partners identified school environmental health concerns with parents through discussions and audits. They then guided the project's direction through their involvement in data collection, intervention development, and evaluation. Through an active role in methods and process, the communities are gaining the leadership, tools and resources to effectively address environmental factors affecting youth.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)Describe the development of the partnership participatory action-evaluation framework.
• 2)Identify and contrast the principles and logic models of the two school organizing models.
• 3)Analyze the application of the models to reducing childhood health disparities.

Keywords: Latino Health, Environmental Justice

Related Web page: www.healthyschoolscampaign.org/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.