Grantee Research Project Results
2013 Progress Report: Community Outreach and Translation Core
EPA Grant Number: R834513C004Subproject: this is subproject number 004 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R834513
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas - UC Berkeley School of Public Health: CHAMACOS Office, Berkeley, CA
Center Director: Eskenazi, Brenda
Title: Community Outreach and Translation Core
Investigators: Eskenazi, Brenda , Rosas, Lisa Goldman , Salvatore, Alicia L. , Bradman, Asa , Barlow, Janice , Minkler, Meredith , Wallerstein, Nina
Current Investigators: Eskenazi, Brenda , Rosas, Lisa Goldman , Salvatore, Alicia L. , Bradman, Asa , Barlow, Janice , Minkler, Meredith
Institution: University of California - Berkeley
Current Institution: University of California - Berkeley , Stanford University , University of Oklahoma , ZERO Breast Cancer
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: August 1, 2009 through July 31, 2014 (Extended to July 31, 2017)
Project Period Covered by this Report: June 1, 2012 through May 31,2013
RFA: Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers (with NIEHS) (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health
Objective:
The Community Outreach and Translation Core (COTC) permits Center scientists and community partners to communicate study findings in a culturally appropriate manner, to raise awareness of children’s environmental health within and beyond the Salinas Valley, and to mobilize groups toward actions that will improve the health of low-income Latino residents in Monterey County. The specific aims are to:
Specific Aim 1: Disseminate Center research findings to study participants, the Salinas Valley community and other stakeholders
Specific Aim 2: Increase awareness about children’s environmental health among low-income Latino communities, clinicians and service providers through widespread dissemination of innovative outreach and educational programs
Specific Aim 3: Build the capacity of Salinas Valley youth to promote healthy environmental policies in their community
Specific Aim 4: Educate policy makers at the local, state and national levels about Center research findings and children’s environmental health priorities
Progress Summary:
Specific Aim 1. To disseminate Center research findings to study participants, the Salinas Valley community and other stakeholders
Over the past year, we have conducted several activities to achieve this aim:
- Participant Community Forum: Our annual community forum to disseminate new research findings to study participants was held on December 1, 2012. Our forum participation exceeded our expectations, with nearly 500 children, parents and family members in attendance. The forum held three activities simultaneously: one for young children, one for the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) participant children, and one for adults. The event was hosted by staff from both our research office and our field office, which created a familiar and inclusive atmosphere.
- Youth Community Forum (YCF): The theme of this year’s event was sustainable agriculture. The YCF was held at ALBA, a local organic farmer training program located 10 minutes south of Salinas. At the event, the 33 children who attended broke up into four groups and participated in four activities, or stations. Each of the stations was visited for 30 minutes. At the first station, the members of the Youth Community Council (YCC) presented their Photovoice project; at the second station, there was an interactive presentation and Jeopardy game on CHAMACOS Study results. At the third station, there was a presentation by farmers from ALBA on sustainable agriculture. At the fourth station, there was an activity by California Alliance for Family Farmers on nutrition, where the children learned to read food labels.
- Newsletter: We are publishing our newsletter, La Semilla, twice a year, doubling production to have more frequent communication with our participant families. Our June edition focused on our research with flame retardants and included information on where these chemicals are found, why we are studying them and how to prevent exposure. This edition also had a feature on our long-time community outreach worker Jose Camacho. Our November edition had an overview of our study looking at the exposure of pregnant mothers to methyl bromide and had a summary of our indoor air quality in child care centers study. Both editions also had a children’s “Fun” section in the back, where there was a word search for children to get involved.
- Electronic newsletter: We have regularly sent out email announcements about our new publications and activities of the COTC. The newsletter has grown from efforts to sign up individuals at presentations and workshops, both to research audiences and to community members in the Salinas Valley. Visitors to the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH) website can also sign up for newsletters through a button on our home page. Our email list is comprised of researchers, students, farmworkers, advocates, health professionals, growers and other community members.
- Dissemination to larger community and targeted groups: We continued our efforts to share Center research findings with the Salinas Valley community through targeted meetings with community groups and key stakeholders, participation in community events and media interviews about our work. Mostly in the Salinas Valley, we conducted nearly 87 meetings with targeted groups in the community to discuss recent Center findings and other environmental health issues. Center staff also participated in several local health-related events, such as health fairs and town hall meetings, to talk about Center research. Through these efforts, we made contact with 764 children, 2,059 women and 1,015 men from July 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013.
- Dissemination to the scientific community: A list of pertinent scientific publications is listed for each Core in their respective progress reports, along with a list of presentations at scientific meetings. We also have presented our findings at other local meetings and universities, including briefings with senior scientific and management staff at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
- Website: On our website, www.cerch.org, we have developed an Online Resource Center (ORC) where specific audience groups can access information on environmental health hazards and how they can protect themselves, including parents, families, young children and teens, community groups and health professionals. As new resources are developed by our Center, they are posted to the ORC to facilitate rapid access to these audience groups. To expand our online outreach efforts, we recently have started a CERCH Facebook page where interested individuals can hear about breaking news related to the Center on their Facebook Newsfeed.
Specific Aim 2: To increase awareness about children’s environmental health among low-income Latino communities, clinicians and service providers through widespread dissemination of innovative outreach and educational programs
- Outreach to pregnant women: The Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk has been updated to reach a wider audience. The Prenatal Kiosk now is available on the Internet, on both PC and Mac platforms, and in both English and Spanish. We have also added new slides on emerging chemical exposures for pregnant women, including BPA, phthalates and flame retardants. All versions of the Kiosk now are available in the CERCH Online Resource Center. Also, on February 20, 2013, the Prenatal Kiosk was presented to the Monterey County Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program (CPSP) to encourage CPSP workers to share the resource with their clients.
- Outreach to child care providers: In collaboration with the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), we continue to conduct our workshop on healthy environments in child care settings. We have presented 14 such trainings in Monterey County, reaching 306 child care providers and parents.
Dr. Asa Bradman and Mr. Camacho also worked with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); the University of California, Irvine, Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (UCI PEHSU); and Region IX of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a successful training on environmental health in schools and child care in Imperial County, CA.
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Outreach to social service organizations: Over the past year, Center staff has continued to provide presentations to community groups in Monterey County on the following topics: Preventing Pesticide Exposure, CHAMACOS Findings Overview, Healthy Homes and Heat Illness Prevention.
With support from an EPA Children’s Center grant, we have conducted two Train-the-Trainers workshops to prepare community leaders to give pesticide safety training presentations. The workshop was given once to farmworker parent leaders from the Migrant Education program and then again to local community health workers.
- Outreach to farmworkers: We have maintained a Farmworker Council of former and current farmworkers in the Salinas Valley. We will be meeting with this group in June 2013 to discuss outreach strategies and facilitate farmworker input into Center research and health-promotion activities. We share Spanish-language summaries of our research with this group before the information is published. Additionally, we continue to provide many presentations and trainings to members of the public in the Salinas Valley, many of whom are farmworkers.
- Outreach to growers and the agricultural industry: We continue to have a relationship with our Agricultural Council, including the sharing of study summaries of abstracts with this group before they are released and phone conferences with members. We also have made ourselves available to talk with them if they have questions related to new publications. Our Community Advisory Board (CAB) continues to include membership from local leaders of the agricultural industry.
Specific Aim 3: To build the capacity of Salinas Valley youth to promote healthy environmental policies in their community
We have maintained the CHAMACOS Youth Community Council, whose goal it is to build youth capacity to promote healthy environmental policies in Salinas. The YCC now consists of 20 youth from Salinas, CA, and we meet with them twice per month. We continue to build on the Photovoice project that was conducted by the youth in 2011. One of the themes that came from the Photovoice project was lack of safe space to get physical activity in Salinas. To learn more about this built environment issue, the youth conducted a Walkability Survey to learn what prevented community members from walking as much as they would like. Youth were involved in all phases of the survey, including designing the survey instrument, conducting interviews, entering data and analyzing the data. Next, a report is currently being written about the results of the survey and will support efforts to bring safer spaces to promote physical activity in Salinas.
The YCC has also been involved in a new project funded by the California Breast Cancer Research Fund to investigate exposure to endocrine disruptors in Latina adolescents. The study will measure endocrine disruptors in 100 adolescent girls of Salinas, then ask them to use low-chemical personal care products for 3 days. After the 3 days, we will measure their endocrine disruptors once again. The YCC are again involved in all phases of the project, including designing questionnaires and recruitment, and they will be involved in study interviewing and data analysis. The project is titled the HERMOSA Study, an acronym for Health and Environmental Research in Make-up of Salinas Adolescents. The word also translates to “beautiful” in Spanish. For more on the HERMOSA Study, see www.cerch.org/hermosastudy.
Specific Aim 4: To educate policy makers at the local, state and national levels about Center research findings and children’s environmental health priorities
On June 26, 2012, Dr. Kim Harley was invited to speak at the California State Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee on the health effects of flame retardants. This talk followed a four-part series by the Chicago Tribune that ignited interest in the California flammability standard. On January 16, 2013, Dr. Bradman was invited to speak at the Symposium on Cumulative Impacts and Children's Environmental Health for the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment on the “Application of a Cumulative Impact Framework to Understand Environmental Exposures and Social Stressors in an Agricultural Community.” Legislative aides for state representatives attended the talk. On April 24, 2013, Dr. Bradman was invited to speak at the California State Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee at a meeting on Fumigant Alternatives. At the meeting, he fielded many questions related to a recent publication in Environmental Health Perspectives on methyl bromide and birth outcomes.
Significance: COTC activities are vital to our Community-University partnership. The COTC permits Center scientists and community partners to communicate study findings in a culturally appropriate manner, to raise awareness of children’s environmental health within and beyond the Salinas Valley, and to mobilize groups toward actions that will improve the health of low-income Latino residents in Monterey County. By increasing the capacity of community members and professionals in the Salinas Valley to address environmental health issues, we are supporting efforts to reduce environmental exposures to children.
Project-Generated Resources
The COTC core has received funds from EPA to expand outreach activities by building capacity to reduce children’s environmental health exposures. With this supplementary funding and COTC Core funding, we have developed the following resources:
- Online Resource Center (ORC): At www.cerch.org, tailored to distinct audience groups.
- Update of the Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk: Now available on PC and Mac platforms, in English and Spanish, and with new sections on emerging exposures, including phthalates, bisphenol A and flame retardants. We also have developed a flyer that health workers can give to their patients to educate them about environmental health hazards to be aware of during pregancy. Available at www.cerch.org/kiosk in English and www.cerch.org/kiosk in Spanish.
- Train-the-Trainer Curriculum: A guide for other community-based organizations that are interested in building capacity among lay health workers on pesticide exposure reduction techniques.
- Puppet show video and script: We have developed a puppet show for children ages 4–8 years to learn about pesticides alongside the puppets Lola, Lupe and Beto. In the puppet show, audience members learn the following about pesticides: (1) What are they? (2) Why are they dangerous? and (3) How can they be avoided? A video of the puppet show is available on our website; the video was produced in English and Spanish. Also, for child care programs or others who work with children who would like to replicate the puppet show, we have posted the script in in English and Spanish.
- Trainings to build environmental health awareness and capacity to prevent exposures in child settings, including: Environmental Quality in Childcare Centers and Healthy Homes. The Environmental Quality in Childcare Centers training focuses on pesticides and integrated pest management strategies, as well as a broad range of environmental health concerns in child care facilities. Healthy Homes training prepares parents to prevent exposures associated with poor housing quality. By learning to take a holistic approach to identifying and resolving housing problems that affect the health of residents, parents leave with the tools to understand and apply healthy-homes intervention strategies.
Future Activities:
- Dissemination of Center research findings: We plan to hold a Youth Community Forum in summer 2013 for CHAMACOS children participants and a Participant Community Forum in December 2013 for all study participants. We will continue targeted outreach to community groups and respond to invitations for presentations. We will be holding a meeting of our Community Advisory Board and Farmworker Councils. We will continue to communicate with the members of our Agricultural Council, although we will need to redevelop the structure and protocol of our interaction with this group. We will also continue our dissemination to the scientific community.
- Education on children’s environmental health: We have completed the revisions to the Prenatal Environmental Health Kiosk; next, we will develop a guide for its use in health clinics and social service agencies. Environmental education to child care providers and community groups will continue.
- Youth Community Council: Over the summer, the YCC will engage with the participatory research project to investigate exposure to endocrine disruptors from personal care products. They will be involved in all phases of the research project. After the project, they will take part in actions to reduce exposure of Latina adolescents to these personal care products. This project was funded by the California Breast Cancer Research Fund based on the strength of the previous 2 years of work of the YCC.
Journal Articles on this Report : 3 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other subproject views: | All 334 publications | 8 publications in selected types | All 8 journal articles |
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Other center views: | All 697 publications | 170 publications in selected types | All 169 journal articles |
Type | Citation | ||
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Guerrero J, Madrigal DS, Minkler M. What is…?: a research ethics Jeopardy™ game to help community partners understand human subjects protections and their importance. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action 2014;8(3):405-411. |
R834513 (2014) R834513 (2015) R834513 (Final) R834513C004 (2013) R834513C004 (2014) R834513C004 (2015) |
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Holland N, Lizarraga D, Huen K. Recent progress in the genetics and epigenetics of paraoxonase: why it is relevant to children's environmental health. Current Opinion in Pediatrics 2015;27(2):240-247. |
R834513 (2013) R834513 (2014) R834513 (2015) R834513 (Final) R834513C003 (2013) R834513C003 (2014) R834513C003 (2015) R834513C004 (2013) |
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Madrigal DS, Salvatore A, Casillas G, Casillas C, Vera I, Eskenazi B, Minkler M. Health in my community: conducting and evaluating PhotoVoice as a tool to promote environmental health and leadership among Latino/a youth. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action 2014;8(3):317-329. |
R834513 (2014) R834513 (2015) R834513 (Final) R834513C004 (2013) R834513C004 (2014) R834513C004 (2015) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Community-based research, community outreach and translation, environmental justice, endocrine disruptors;Relevant Websites:
Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health
Environmental Quality in California Child Care
Green Cleaning Toolkit
CHAMACOS Study, 15 Years in the Fields [Video]
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R834513 Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas - UC Berkeley School of Public Health: CHAMACOS Office, Berkeley, CA Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R834513C001 CHAMACOS Cohort Project: Pesticides and PBDE on Neurobehavior and Puberty
R834513C002 Project B: Exposure Project: Mn, DDT/E and PBDE Exposure to Farmworker Children
R834513C003 Epigenetics Project
R834513C004 Community Outreach and Translation Core
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- Final
- 2016
- 2015 Progress Report
- 2014 Progress Report
- 2012 Progress Report
- 2011 Progress Report
- 2010
- Original Abstract
8 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R834513
697 publications for this center
169 journal articles for this center