269662 Salud Familiar en McKinley: Culture and language concerns and strategies of a unique and sustainable community-university partnership to promote health equity and community resilience

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Kathleen M. Roe, DrPH, MPH , Health Science Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
Aurora Garcia, MEd , McKinley Elementary School, San Jose, CA
Nicole Adel, BS , Health Science Department, San José State University, San Jose, CA
Maziel Giron, MPH(c) , Health Science Department, San José State University, San José, CA
Aldo Chazaro, BS , Health Science Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
Robert RInck, MPH , Health Science Department, San José State University, San José, CA
Silvia Montano , Salud Familiar en McKinley, McKinley Elementary School, San Jose, CA
Yadeel Lopez , Salud Familiar en McKinley, McKinley Elementary School, San Jose, CA
Beheshta Kakar, BS , Salud Familiar en McKinley, San José State University, San José, CA
Naomi Williams, BS , Salud Familiar en McKinley, San José State University, San José, CA
Erika Borja , McKinley Elementary School, Salud Familiar en McKinley, San Jose, CA
Maricela Garcia , Salud Familiar en McKinley, McKinley Elementary School, San Jose, CA
Salud Familiar en McKinley is a public health promotion partnership between a low-income, immigrant elementary school community and the public health program of the local university. Founded in 2007, Salud Familiar began with core values of public health education (start where the people are, participation, praxis), principles of the university department (authentic relationships, collaborative achievement, and that which is not given away is lost), and cultural values of the school and community (family, respect, dignity, humility). Over a period of 5 years, university, school, and community members carefully and purposefully built a partnership that is more than the sum of its parts and now deeply embedded in the hearts and cultures of both organizations. Although the parents are monolingual Spanish speakers and the college students speak English and at least 15 different native languages or dialects, commitment to cultural humility, shared experience, and authentic relationships transformed a language barrier into a cultural and linguistic opportunity. Indeed, rather than tailoring a program to fit the language of one of the partners, we co-created the understandings and commitments that allow us to work and learn across cultural and linguistic divides. This presentation will highlight recurring decisions around language, including choice of words, use of data, framing of issues, and the importance of names. Best practices for working across languages and cultures will be shared from two Salud Familiar components - our annual program of 13 large family health events and leadership development with Las Campeonas de la Salud (mothers health club).

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Diversity and culture
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Discuss three important considerations when working in health promotion programs with monolingual non-English speaking adults. Identify two strategies used in Salud Familiar to bridge linguistic divides between multicultural college students and monolingual community participants.

Keywords: Culture, Community Health Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Co-Founder of Salud Familiar en McKinley and the Principal Investigator of the supporting grants. I am also the chair of the department that is the university partner in this project.
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.