Friday, September 7, 2012


  Transforming African American and Latino Communities in Travis County


     Latinos and African Americans combined make up close to half of the Travis County population and will exceed that soon. To combat health disparities and chronic disease burdens disproportionately affecting lower-income Latinos and African-Americans here, the Austin City Council has authorized the award of a contract with the University of Texas School of Public Health to work with community based nonprofit health organizations. A total of $198,000 is anticipated through September 2013 when full approval is granted.


     This contract is supported by the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department with approximately 10% of the funds that were competitively awarded at the national level for Community Transformation Grants (CTG) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. This is the first step taken in Austin toward implementation of a key element of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act: Reducing costs by implementing best practices for disease prevention with an emphasis on the long-term elimination of health disparities.
 

     These local CTG projects are being sponsored in two Austin neighborhoods (zip codes 78721/23 & 78744) by the Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas (AAAHCT) and the Latino HealthCare Forum (LHCF), community-based nonprofit organizations formed in response to growing awareness of the health disparities that impact them.


     Community organization in zip codes 78721/23 is led by Marva Overton, Executive Director of the AAAHCT and branded by participants as:

East Side Health Network’s “Living Healthy on the East Side”


     Community organization in zip code 78744 is led by Jill Ramirez, Director of LHCF’s new PromoSalud state-certified school for Community Health Workers and branded:

Dove Springs Health Network’s “Manantial de Salud Dove Springs” (Spanish)  

http://manantialdesaluddovesprings.blogspot.com/
 

     In both areas leadership teams of four residents have recruited 15-20 community health advocates, who in turn have recruited others to form networks with approximately 60 participants in each area. These groups will meet monthly for two months and quarterly thereafter to implement outreach and community education activities they have chosen, and to discuss ideas for new activities that might be adopted in the future.

 
     Over time these projects will refine goals and the community participants will guide selection of options for CTG activities that best serve these communities. But some goals are obvious: The rates of diabetes mortality are three to four times higher among Latinos and African-Americans than among non-Hispanic whites and this corresponds to their higher levels of obesity. We have chosen to confront the challenge of obesity in our first two months of work.

 
     As they are the single most obvious examples of an unhealthy food product, we have chosen sodas and other sugar sweetened beverages as the first target for both networks. We are organizing a “no soda during the school week” challenge that is presently being introduced to East Side, Dove Springs and families throughout the Austin area in the first two weeks of school in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Pont, Austin Independent School District Medical Director.


     For October we have agreed to focus on physical activity and a pledge to one of four levels of healthy activity. Walkability is a problem and we are doing assessments to recommend improvements in both areas to City Planning. We are also working with Pre-Schools to exchange innovative nutrition and activity policies currently practiced in these communities.       
 

Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas - East Side: moverton@aaacht.org  

Latino HealthCare Forum - Dove Springs: jill@latinohealthcareforum.org

University of Texas School of Public Health: alfred.l.mcalister@uth.tmc.edu