Collaborative student-promotor curriculum development and training to decrease obesity in Hispanic residents of San Bernardino County

The issue of obesity, which affects 63% of people living in San Bernardino County, California, is often unaddressed for the county's 48% Hispanic population. This is problematic because 76% of Hispanic residents in San Bernardino are overweight or obese. The Parents in Action curriculum is a toolkit provided by the California Project LEAN (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition) designed to engage parents and equip them to advocate on behalf of their families and communities in local school wellness policies. Masters of Public Health (MPH) Global Health students partnered with a local community-based organization (CBO) through an academic-service learning project to expand this existing advocacy curriculum. The CBO is dedicated to training promotores de salud, who are an ideal population to implement the Parents in Action curriculum since they use their understanding of the community's culture and values to informally provide health education. The MPH students, CBO, and promotores together determined culturally appropriate nutrition and physical activity topics to supplement the Parents in Action modules. The new 20-hour curriculum modeled the Parents in Action toolkit to provide strategies for individual and family lifestyle change and advocacy. The MPH students piloted the promotor-training over the course of 3 months as the promotores continually provided feedback to modify the curriculum. After the pilot-training, the promotores integrated the new material into their community health education. This session will discuss challenges, lessons learned, and strategies used in a successful interdisciplinary, community-university partnership that seeks to promote sustainable community health promotion.