238377 Promoting Health and Academic Wellness among Latino Youth and Families: The Si Se Puede Project

Monday, October 31, 2011: 3:10 PM

Britt Rios-Ellis, PhD, MS , NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Mara Bird, PhD , NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Long Beach, CA
Selena T. Nguyen-Rodriguez, PhD, MPH , NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Carlos Rodriguez, MPH, MD (c) , NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Long Beach, CA
Mayra Rascon, MPH , NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation, and Leadership Training, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA
Although Latinos represent the largest and fastest growing adolescent population, there are few culturally relevant interventions that address their health and academic well-being. Current research indicates that Latino youth experience higher rates of overweight and obesity, type II diabetes, depression, and suicide ideation when compared with all other racial/ethnic groups. The Youth Empowerment for Success YES! Si Se Puede Program housed in Long Beach, California is a collaborative effort of the NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Hamilton Middle School and the YMCA. The Si Se Puede program is designed to create a youth-centered, family based empowerment program to enhance academic performance, intention to attend college, and physical and mental well-being among Latino students in a low performing middle school in the Long Beach Unified School District. The program combines tutoring and mentorship, digital media training, exercise, monthly university campus visits, and a one-month university summer and sports camp experience to achieve changes in academic and physical fitness performance as well as mental health and overall well-being. Workshops are provided to both students and families on topics such as: self-esteem and mental health, violence prevention, race relations, career development, nutrition, sexual health, and cultural appreciation. Results from pre-intervention and post-intervention data as well as six-month follow-up surveys will be presented and indicators of academic performance, body composition, depression and changes in well-being discussed among participants from the cohorts of the first two years of the project (n=68). Furthermore, strategies regarding involvement of Latino families in school-based programs will be presented.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Advocacy for health and health education
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs

Learning Objectives:
Identify the necessary components for a culturally relevant family-based, youth focused university, community, and school collaborative intervention Evaluate the student health and academic outcomes of the YES Si Se Puede Project on health and academic performance indicators.

Keywords: Latinos, Adolescent Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the evaluator for the project and am involved in program development and planning
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.