Strengthening Outreach Ties with Promotoras via Training Modules

Since 2007, the U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Sciences and Toxicology and the Superfund Research Program have been working on outreach and science translation targeting environmental health promotoras.  Collaborative ties have been forged via trainings with promotoras working in southern Tucson (Sonora Environmental Research Institute - Community Assist of Southern Arizona– SERI - CASA) and Yaqui native communities (Instituto Tecnológica de Sonora - ITSON).  Both programs, along with the University of Arizona’s Department of Entomology, have received support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Border 2012 Program and the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission to implement transferable training modules regarding environmental science and health. Project collaborators include: 1) SERI - CASA, 2) Regional Center for Border Health in Yuma, and
3) ITSON.

The team will be working on determining training needs of promotoras in Tucson, Yuma, and Ciudad Obregon; developing transferrable modules on arsenic, pesticides, contaminant fate and transport, and environmental toxicology; and assessing the effectiveness of the modules on pilot promotora groups.  The outcomes for the project will encompass the accessibility of environmental health information to vulnerable populations as well as potential replication of training by these community conduits.  Future funding will be determined in order to expand successful aspects of the project.

More information will be provided about accomplishments as the project develops.