The Power of Community: Enhancing community engagement through the Chinese “Promotora” education model for lead poisoning prevention [POSTER]

image: en.wikipedia.org

This poster reports on the effectiveness of the Promotora model for engaging the Chinese immigrant community in Seattle, Washington. Promotora (Spanish for ‘Promoter’) is an engagement model where trusted community members utilize their own social networks to provide education and social support to promote changes. These Promotoras provide teaching and education activities in personal and intimate settings such as the home, church, or other local gathering areas.

Because success of the model in Latino communities for engaging and initiating behavior change is well documented, Public Health – Seattle and King County worked with a local NGO to adapt the model for outreach and education on lead-based paint hazards in the Chinese immigrant community.

Methods: Pre- and post-surveys were conducted for Chinese residents who attended the workshop to measure baseline attitude and knowledge. One month follow-up phone surveys were conducted to measure short-term change in health behavior. Workshop observations, focus groups with residents, and qualitative interviews with Promotoras were conducted to identify methods to improve community engagement.

Results: Results will report the number of students attending workshops, the students’ change in attitude and knowledge regarding lead safety, and actions they took to reduce lead hazards at home in the past month. Results will also explore the strengths and weaknesses of the Promotora education model and lessons learned by Public Health–Seattle King County while utilizing the Promotora model for increasing lead-based paint hazard awareness in the Chinese immigrant community.

Conclusions: Based on the results, health departments should be able to determine how the Promotora education model can be successful in engaging with the Chinese immigrant community on environmental health issues. These lessons can also be applied to enhance community outreach and engagement with other limited-English proficient populations.