AVANCE CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF IMMIGRANT/REFUGEE HEALTH Mark Edberg, PhD, MA Avance Center Director Sean D. Cleary, PhD, MPH Avance Center Co-Director.

AVANCE CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF

IMMIGRANT/REFUGEE HEALTH

Mark Edberg, PhD, MA Avance Center Director

Sean D. Cleary, PhD, MPH

Avance Center Co-Director

AVANCE CENTER OVERVIEWWhat is the Center? A P20 Exploratory Research Center (2012-2017) funded by the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NIMHD) within the National Institutes of Health

What do P20 Centers do? P20 Centers are intended to address health disparities in specific populations through:-community collaboration-capacity building-engagement -exploratory research on interventions and contributing factors

The Avance Center is focused on understanding and addressing disparities among Latino and other immigrant/refugee populations.

The unprecedented population growth among immigrants in the U.S. has not been accompanied by increased monitoring of immigrant health

WHY FOCUS ON HEALTH DISPARITIES IN IMMIGRANT/REFUGEE POPULATIONS?

HOW DOES THE AVANCE CENTER ADDRESS THESE ISSUES?

• University-community collaboration • A community intervention for the

prevention of substance abuse, sex risk, and violence among Latino immigrant youth

• Promoting youth and community engagement (e.g., online, social media, YouTube, new technologies)

• Community/university capacity building, dissemination

• As a platform for future efforts/collaborations

• Through the new CDC REACH grant (focus on poor nutrition).

AVANCE CENTER COMPONENTS

Cores: Administrative, Research, Training and Community Engagement & Outreach – each “core” has a defined set of activities related to the overall mission.

Community Partners: Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers, Rivera Group, collaborations with the Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative, Prince George’s County Public Schools, multiple community organizations

Collaboration: Community Participatory Research Team (CPRT) and Community Advisory Board (CAB).

LANGLEY PARK, MD

Our partner community for the Adelante intervention – just outside of Washington, DC

Population of 20,675 with 79.7% self-classified as Hispanic (Census 2012)

Youth are primarily from El Salvador (46.5%), Guatemala (32.9%), Honduras (10.4%), and other Central and South American countries (recent Adelante data)

RATIONALE FOR NEW ADELANTE INTERVENTION

Based on our previous research, we knew it would be important to develop an intervention that worked at different levels of the community – at the individual, family, and community levels, at the same time.

We decided on a Positive Youth Development (PYD) theoretical framework, which emphasizes the relationship between people and their community as a strategy for prevention – building community capacity and social fabric to create a better prevention environment.

PERSON-ENVIRONMENT CONTEXT

CURRENT WORK: ADELANTE MULTI-LEVEL INTERVENTION, IMPACT AND OUTCOMES

Intervention components

-Youth Leadership and Advocacy Program-Parents as Leaders Program -Academic Support Programs -Career Exploration/Job Readiness Training -Multi-Family Dinners-Recreational Activities-Health Literacy Training -Youth Prevention Sessions_-Website and Media Activities-Drop-in Center & Support Services-Case Management -Connections to CAB

Impacts

Improvement In:• Competence (PYD*)• Confidence (PYD)• Connection (PYD)• Contribution (PYD)• Future Expectations• Positive Identity• Perceived

Discrimination• Person-Environment

Context

Outcomes

Decreased behavior related to substance use, sexual risk & interpersonal violence

CURRENT WORK: ADELANTE BRANDING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Current Work: Training, Capacity Building, Public Fora

GWU students conducting

master’s and doctoral level

research as well as practicums (internships) in the community or with study

data.

New course developed called “Keeping Up With the New America:

Latino and Immigrant Health

Disparities.” Co-taught with

community partner

organization staff.

First annual conference held in May 2013, the second was held on September 25, 2014. Next Fall will be the

third!

Development of community

capacity building activities in

process.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY AND STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE AVANCE CENTER

• Students conducting culminating experience (CE) projects in the community.

• Doctoral students conducting research in the community or with other related immigrant/refugee populations.

• Students participating in, even spearheading Center activities – examples include the tutoring and community garden projects, with extensive support from GW Puentes (campus civic engagement group of Spanish bilingual students).

• Special research projects needed for the Center.

• Students helping to assess the availability of nutritious food and drinking water in the Langley Park community (for the REACH project).

ADELANTE - LA CASITA

HOW HAVE STUDENTS BEEN INVOLVED?

Community Boundary Study

Anthropology and public health students, with community partners, walked the perimeter of the area and conducted ~140 intercept interviews

ASSET MAPPING PROJECT

PHOTOVOICE PILOT PROJECT (GLORIANA SOJO-LARA, IDALINA CUBILLA)

COMPUTER SKILLS TRAINING

Training in:

• Health Literacy

• Computer Literacy

ENGAGING STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS ON THE GWU CAMPUS

GW Puentes students offer tutoring services every Saturday in Langley Park

COMMUNITY GARDEN PILOT (GLORIANA SOJO-LARA)

“More than 50 community members showed up to help us plant, set up the beds, and participate in various activities. This community garden was a final project for the GW World on a Plate course with Chef Jose Andres, so here is the video my group and I made:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z83K2WHEO2k 

GW STUDENT RESEARCH

MPH Practicum Projects

Becky Elstad (Asset Mapping)Paige Kulie (Asset Mapping)Will Seymour (Planning organized sports activities for community)Molly Gribbins (Process data collection, organization, operationalization) MPH CE Projects

Molly Gribbins (Operationalizingexposure measures)

Doctoral Coursework

Lyda Holguin Palacios - Education (Counseling) PhD

Doctoral Dissertations

Idalina Cubilla – Epidemiology PhD Laura Mlynarski – Psychology PhD

CONTACT US…

Avance Center for the Advancement of Immigrant / Refugee Heath

Milken Institute School of Public HealthThe George Washington University

email:   info@avancegw.org

website: avancegw.org

Twitter: @avancecentergw

Facebook: AvanceCenteratGW