February Partner Spotlight
Feb 01, 2013
Background
Migrant Health Promotion (MHP) builds on community strengths to improve health in farmworker and border communities. MHP’s programs provide peer health education, increase access to health resources, and bring community members together with health providers, employers, and policymakers to create positive health changes. MHP's great work demonstrates how community leaders, called Promotores and Promotoras, can provide inspiration, direction, and vision necessary to build stronger, healthier communities.
Outreach and Promotions
With support from the Texas Department of State Health Services' Diabetes Program and resources from the NDEP, Migrant Health Promotion implemented a “Promotora Community Program” (PCP) in Hidalgo County, Florida. The goal of the PCP is to promote healthy lifestyle changes by educating community members about their risk for type 2 diabetes and ways to prevent or manage the disease through healthy eating and physical activity.
As part of the PCP, Migrant Health Promotion used NDEP tools to coordinate activities that are culturally and linguistically appropriate to the population served by MHP. For example, the program organized cooking and nutrition classes using recipes from NDEP’s Más que comida, es vida. (It's more than food. It's Life.) bilingual (English and Spanish) recipe book, teaching people how to how make traditional Mexican food with healthier, diabetes-friendly ingredients. The program also used NDEP's bilingual The Road to Health Toolkit and Movimiento por su vida music CD to host diabetes health education sessions and exercise groups focused on encouraging people to make healthy behavior changes like eating more fruits and vegetables, reading food labels when grocery shopping, drinking water instead of sugary drinks, and tips for making physical activity a part of their daily lives.
As of August 2012, MHP conducted more than 100 sessions with a total of more than 1,500 program participants. Participants reported that their knowledge of diabetes and the importance of healthy eating and physical activity increased, noting that they have started making better food choices and being more active. One participant added, "If it wasn't for the PCP, I would have never made the time to exercise. Since I have joined the exercise group, I feel more motivated, more energetic, and agile."
For more information about Migrant Health Promotion and the Promotora Community Program, visit www.migranthealth.org or contact Colleen Reinert at creinert@migranthealth.org.