Prevent Diabetes Live La Vida Buena/the Good Lifeway

In order to prevent obesity and the associated risk of diabetes among adolescents in Santa Cruz County, Mariposa Community Health Center has developed and implemented La Vida Buena/The Good Lifeway Program, a 9 week intervention targeting adolescents who are overweight or at risk of overweight and diabetes, identified by school nurses, health providers and lay health workers and their families. Educational topics delivered have been adapted from the US. DHHS Office of Women's health Body Works curriculum to meet the community needs in regards to nutrition and physical activity for male and female adolescents and their families. Trained lay health workers and teen lay health workers deliver weekly the culturally appropriate sessions in both English and Spanish. The program addresses local cultural and social issues that are pertinent to obesity and diabetes prevention and foments a family friendly learning environment and family communication improvement. Lay health workers conduct baseline questionnaires assessing adolescents and parent's knowledge, attitudes and behavior about nutrition and physical activity as well as weight and height measurements. Follow up questionnaires and weight and height measurements are conducted at the program completion. Pre-post questionnaire results, process indicators and lessons learned including best practices for Latino border communities will be shared.