Denise Moreno Ramirez, UA SBRP Community Outreach Coordinator, discussing the U.S-Mexico Binational Center and UA SBRP to Promotoras.

The UA SBRP has begun working with Promotoras de Salud (lay health workers) through a program called Community Assist of Southern Arizona (CASA), funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The program is overseen by a non-profit organization entitled: Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc. (SERI).

On September 27-28, 2007, UA SBRP team members participated in CASA’s week-long Environmental Health Promotora Training. Coordinators, Denise Moreno Ramirez and Monica  Ramirez, presented program overviews, followed by a discussion led by UA SBRP Director, Dr. A. Jay Gandolfi on “Environmental Health and Toxicology”, and a presentation by UA SBRP investigator, Dr. Eduardo Sáez on “Air Contaminants and their Fate in the Environment”. A total of 40 women participated in the week-long training.

Due to the enormous success of the UA SBRP’s participation in CASA’s training, we are now working hand-in-hand with CASA Environmental Health Promotoras to plan half-day on-campus training in the “Fundamentals of Toxicology” and “Fundamentals of Remediation”. In addition, to encourage and support the women’s participation, on-campus science education activities are being provided for their children. Evidence from our past outreach activities suggest that if our program offers learning opportunities for children, parents are more likely to participate.

This partnership was made possible by UA SBRP investigator, Dr. Eric Betterton, who connected the Research Translation and Community Outreach Cores to the CASA Promotoras, SERI Director, Ann Marie Wolf, and TUSD Research Project Manager, Rosalva Bullock.