UA National Center of Excellence in Women's Health (WCOE)

Community Partners Meeting focuses on the health needs of girls

On April 13, 2007, the WCOE brought together local agencies to discuss needs and gaps in health care services provided to young women and girls. Participants in this breakfast meeting included some old and new partners, including Pima County / Tucson Women's Commission, Teen Outreach Pregnancy Service (TOPS), UA Rural Health Office, PCAP (Pima Community Access Program), United Way Youth Programs, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, and YWCA. The session culminated with a roundtable discussion facilitated by Mari Wilhelm that identified potential areas of collaboration and synergy around this pressing issue. Brainstorming focused on how to make the biggest impact with small amounts of funding ($1,000 to 10,000 mini-grants) and how to enlist youth participation and input on an ongoing basis.

Teen to Teen (T2T) Health Education Program

The WCOE was awarded a grant from the March of Dimes to develop Teen to Teen (T2T), a peer health education program. Approximately 15 youth (male and female), ages 15-21, will be trained to provide information to other teens on basic health topics, local resources accessible to teens, and how to identify appropriate medical information in print and online. Training will be over the course of three weeks in June 2007 and will continue with twice monthly workshops on topics such as self-esteem, body image, nutrition, folic acid, bone building, physical activity, preventative health, reproduction, high risk behaviors, and being prepared physically, mentally, and emotionally for parenthood. Students will develop their own outreach strategies which may include speaking one-on-one, presenting to small or large groups, writing articles for their school newspaper, or creating a teen column on the WCOE website.

Johnson & Johnson Academic-Community Partnership

The WCOE and the Promotora del Barrio Program/TUSD partnership is quickly reaching its first full year of collaboration. Thirty-eight community health workers have completed the diabetes prevention training program. They are currently going door-to-door to provide health education to the community with 250 anticipated contacts. Training programs are in development in the area of breast and cervical cancer prevention for years 2 and 3 of the partnership. The middle-school focused girls Intergenerational Component is wrapping up its yearlong program. For the third year in a row the residential component (formerly known as the Latina Institute) will occur on the UA campus from June 7-9 and 21-23. Please contact Velia Leybas (vleybas@u.arizona.edu) the project lead for this effort, if you would like to donate door prizes for the camp attendees.

Inter-professional Clinical Practice Task Force

This group has continued to meet to develop a strategy for the development of an integrated, inter-professional clinical practice that spans Nursing, Medicine, Pharmacy and Public Health. Two initiatives are being refined; one is a residency training initiative, while the second is a collaboration with University Health Care Group, a regional provider of insurance to small businesses and individuals.

WCOE Post Doctoral Scholar

Please welcome two new faces to the WCOE team. Catherine Marshall was recently awarded a prestigious NCI Ruth Kirschstein fellowship to examine the unique interplay between poverty, literacy and ethnicity among families of women with pre malignant cervical disease. Ada Wilkinson-Lee will complete her doctoral degree in Family Studies and Human Development in August. She brings to the WCOE her expertise and interest in Mexican American Studies and Family Health. She is the first Warmer Foundation Scholar, and will be working on the WCOE perinatal wellness initiative, as well as facilitating multidisciplinary responses to emerging funding initiatives.