Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Pests and pesticides pose serious risks to human health and the environment. Minority populations bear a disproportionate burden of negative health effects due to environmental hazards, including exposures to pests and pesticides. Hispanics are the largest minority in the county with 16% (50.5 million) of the total U.S. population and growing. Between 2000-2010, states in our immediate region show high Hispanic population growth rates: PA (82.6%), New Jersey (39.2%), Delaware (96.4%) and Maryland (106.5%). Latinos are disproportionately represented within populations that suffer from asthma, live at or below poverty and occupy substandard housing. Thus, pest exposures are common, while effective outreach, education and training on safer, more effective pest control is lacking. Hispanics have a great unmet need for accessible IPM information, education and resources at the individual, organizational and community level. The social, linguistic and economic disadvantages faced by many Hispanics leave them less able than other groups to understand and manage environmental hazards. Low levels of education and English-language proficiency, especially among recent immigrants, limit their ability to access information while increasing vulnerability to health risks of pests and the misuse of pesticides. In the case of pesticides, Hispanics often cannot read or understand the information on pesticide labels. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Over the past 12 months, we developed 15 presentations and trainings addressing priority topics - health risks of pests and pesticides, how to choose safer products, preventative approaches to pests, safer bed bug control and how to implement IPM through practices in the built environment. The programs were delivered using three levels of interaction: meetings, trainings/workshops and health fairs. We offered 100+ hours in trainings, workshops and seminars in Spanish and English. We attended 4 health fairs. And participated in 50+ meetings with our network of partners. The location and dates of these events can be found at the end of this report under the title “ Trainings 9-12 forward-MG”. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The educational materials, trainings, workshops have been disseminated to communities of interest by PA IPM Newsletters, social media, program’s website in English and Spanish, videos, TV shows, radio interviews, trainings, and participation in health fairs. Government organizations that are included in the partnership: EPA, USDA, HUD, OSHA, American Lung Association, Philadelphia School District and land grant universities system. Latino Organizations & Entities: APM, Esperanza, Congreso, La Comunidad Hispana (Chester County), Hispanic Civic Association (Lancaster County), Concilio, Centro Hispano Daniel Torres (Berks County), Casa del Carmen, ASPIRA, ACLAMO, Norris Square Civic Association, Kensington Public Library, Isaac Shepard Elementary School, Consulate of Mexico in Philadelphia and the School District of Philadlephia. The location and dates of these events can be found at the end of this report under the title “ Trainings 9-12 forward-MG”. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In order to accomplish these goals we identified and established cooperative relationships with Hispanic organizations, convened collaborators across state boundaries (PA, NJ) and established an official Latino Community IPM partnership. During this phase, we identified partner / stakeholder needs and priorities for bilingual IPM materials and programming, best media forms to use, and methods by which these should be extended and archived. We collected existing material, identified gaps and then developed new materials and programming to deliver locally, regionally and nationally as appropriate. We developed a Latino Community IPM Partnership (LCIP) and a sustained statewide and region wide Urban IPM outreach effort including Latino organizations, government agencies, consulates, media, private companies and Spanish speaking individuals. We established new and deeper working relationships with: APM, Esperanza, Congreso, La Comunidad Hispana, Spanish American Civic Association, Concilio, Consulate of Mexico, Centro Hispano Daniel Torres, Casa del Carmen, ASPIRA, ACLAMO, Norris Square Civic Association, Kensington Public Library, Isaac Shepard Elementary School, USDA, EPA, PDA, Cornell University, Rutgers University, other land grant universities, Northeastern Regional IPM, OSHA and the School District of Philadelphia. Although the funding for the original proposal did not include training for this grant period, just over the past 12 months, we were able to deliver over 100 hours worth of trainings, workshops, seminars and, health fairs, TV shows and radio interviews participation. As a result we reached over 76,000 individuals. In order to build new relationships with partners, conference calls and on site meetings were required on an ongoing basis. We participated in 50+ face to face meetings with the network partners. We attended 4 health fairs in Philadelphia. Health fairs constitute an important tool to solidify our community outreach, bringing information to our partners, offering personal interaction and therefore serving our clientele. We collected 67 evaluations from various trainings and workshops conducted in Spanish in the Latino community. The goal of these evaluations was to assess the quality of the trainings and the knowledge of the participants on IPM before and after the trainings. These evaluations clearly show the effectiveness of trainings. Results can be found at the end of this report under the title “Evaluation in the Latino Community: Module 1 – Pests, Pesticides and Children’s Health”. We also created a listserv with 125+ members of the Latino Community. We translated into Spanish our program’s educational materials, fact sheets, brochures, articles, website and presentations into Spanish. A total of 11 educational materials and 15 presentations. We also translated the Asthma Tool Kit for the American Lung Association. We were invited to speak at several conferences including the Lead & Healthy Housing East Conference in December 2012 and the 2013 Mid Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Convention. We held our annual Philadelphia partnership meeting on July 11th, 2013. This year's theme was "Reaching out to the Latino Community: Healthy Indoor Environments Homes, Schools and Workplaces". Several Latino Organizations in the southeast region of PA were in attendance, in addition to representatives from the US EPA, USDA, HUD and OSHA.There were 80 attendees. Index cards were distributed to the participants in order to assess the needs for trainings and skills development in the community. After group discussions participants wrote comments, action statements and goals for the near future. Results can be found at the end of this report under the title “PARTICIPANTS COMMENTS FROM INDEX CARDS - July 11th, 2013 - PA IPM Meeting, Philadelphia, PA We obtained the ServSafe Food Safety instructor and proctor certification. We conducted trainings in Spanish in Lancaster, Chester, and Berks counties in collaboration with the PSU Food Safety Department. ServSafe curriculum includes a chapter that emphasis the use of IPM to safely handle food preparation and maintenance of the facilities. We conducted one radio interview, two TV shows in Lancaster, PA, published articles in several Latino newspapers, and translated two videos on Bed Bugs in collaboration with Rutgers University. We collaborated with Rutgers University to offer two trainings in Spanish on Bed Bug Prevention and control in four public housing buildings in Jersey City, NJ. Eighty Spanish-speaking residents were surveyed to determine the impact of the trainings on residents' approach to prevent and control bed bugs. We assisted with grant proposals to support additional extension programming for Latino Audiences including participating and collaborating with Extension in exploring new opportunities in International Extension and Vector Control.
Publications
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