Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Joel Ervice¹, Kate Lorenzen¹, and Arcela Nunez-Alvarez, PhD². (1) Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) Initiative, 180 Grand Ave., Suite 750, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-302-3316, joel@rampasthma.org, (2) National Latino Research Center, 333 South Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos, CA 92096

In California, one in ten children under 18 years of age has been diagnosed with asthma, a rate higher than those found in the United States overall. Although asthma affects Americans of all ages, races, and ethnic groups, low-income and minority populations experience substantially higher rates of fatalities, hospital admissions, and emergency room visits due to asthma. Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA) is network of 12 community-based coalitions located throughout California that has worked since 2002 to reduce the burden of asthma and improve the quality of life for school-aged children with asthma at a local, regional, and statewide level. CAFA coalitions support the creation and implementation of policies that reduce indoor and outdoor asthma triggers in the places children spend much of their day: inside school classrooms, their homes, and playing outdoors. The CAFA Network is organized as a community-empowered structure to assess the needs of the various communities, and ask the same community members to join together to work for change. The Network and its coalitions are supported by regional and state and technical assistance partners that provide trainings, workshops, conference calls, and one-on-one support on a wide range of issues, including community organizing, media techniques, and advocacy strategies. Such support helps build coalition capacity to achieve long term social justice goals that benefit the health of school aged children and the entire community.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, the participants will be able to

• Identify the mission, organizational structure, operating methodologies, and planning and evaluation processes of a statewide network of community-based coalitions
• Articulate the role and value of collaborative efforts by asthma coalitions to change local and state level policies

Keywords: Asthma, Coalition

Related Web page: www.calasthma.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation