Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
The overarching goal of this project is to provide the Hispanic communities in Lebanon and Reading, Pennsylvania the evidence-based tools to improve their health, prevent chronic diseases, and reduce health disparities via community-led culturally tailored interventions. Data from multiple community health needs assessments demonstrate that these two largely Hispanic communities have high levels of limited English proficiency, inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, heart disease and death, adults with obesity and overweight, and cancer death rates. The national goal of achieving health equity cannot succeed without eliminating health disparities like the ones experienced by Hispanics in Reading and Lebanon. To accomplish our goal, we will implement and evaluate a set of practice- and evidence-based activities related to nutrition, physical activity, and community-clinical linkages. The proposed work will be led by Penn State PRO Wellness, a Center with a statewide network committed to helping Pennsylvania communities live healthier using evidence-based strategies for measurable and sustainable results. The current proposal will leverage PRO Wellness? Better Together Lebanon initiative, a well-established community-academic coalition in central Pennsylvania and the Be Bold Take Charge coalition from Reading. They have an immediate opportunity to impact these Hispanic communities through healthy nutritional programming, improved physical activity opportunities, and enhanced community-clinical linkages.We have selected a set of outcomes and activities that align with the REACH logic model, Healthy People 2020 goals, our coalition?s capacity, and data from multiple community needs assessments. To improve nutrition, we will: 1) establish healthy nutrition standards across different sectors, 2) deliver healthful foods to families most in need via the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, 3) provide healthier food access at community venues, 4) increas e electronic benefit transfer acceptance, 5) create bilingual hospital-based breastfeeding programming and support with Women, Infant and Children (WIC). To improve physical activity opportunities, we will: 1) develop educational outreach to promote existing and new walking/bike trails that connect parks, schools, businesses, and community facilities, 2) support community engagement to develop and champion a plan for improving cities? recreational infrastructure, and 3) increase school involvement in physical activity through safe routes and shared use agreements. To enhance community-clinical linkages, we will: 1) partner with YMCA, WIC and United Way to expand diabetes prevention program offerings and 2) train local, bilingual community health workers to connect individuals with chronic disease prevention programs. Using best practices recommended by the CDC and others, we have developed both short and long term process measures with associated outcome variables for each of the three strategies noted above. Initial year one process measures broadly include: 1) the provision of technical services and/or professional development activities, 2) gathering of community feedback via qualitative methods, 3) the identification of targeted sites for each initiative, 4) assessment of existing standards/policies, 4) cultural adaptation of activities, and 5) the delivery of targeted educational programming. In addition to comparing outcome measures for proposed programs, we will also evaluate disparities in access, service use, and results across sectors so that we can make adjustments throughout the project. The evaluation team will work concurrently with Better Together partners to engage community stakeholders in decisions related to performance measurement and evaluation procedures so that continuous quality improvement is implemented in a timely manner across the project?s lifecycle.Our expert project team and Better Together coalition are re
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
