Date of Award

January 2022

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

Sarah Lowe

Abstract

In the spring of 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to exacerbate health inequities and virtual learning dragged on, I developed and implemented an educational health-promotion intervention for a small group of Hispanic youth in collaboration with a New Haven Latinx social services non-profit, Junta for Progressive Action. The bilingual, culturally-responsive health curriculum wove together engaging activities related to physical, emotional, mental, social, and community health, promoting participants’ socio-emotional learning and equipping them with destigmatizing vocabulary and skills they could use to advocate for their needs. The curriculum was grounded in social and behavioral theories and was informed by participants’ stated interests and health needs as well as the topics that the scientific literature indicated would most benefit the wellbeing of Hispanic youth. Although the intervention reached only a small number of participants in Grades 3 through 7 due to recruitment challenges, OIRemos (which means “we will listen/hear” in Spanish) met all ten of its initial goals and contributed to efforts to advance health equity by promoting the wellbeing of Hispanic U.S. residents. The outcomes of this project suggest three important findings: (1) culturally-responsive curricula that holistically incorporate evidence-based health-promoting interventions can constructively address some of the health challenges that Covid-19 created, exacerbated, and highlighted for Hispanic youth; (2) collaboratively developing and implementing such interventions in real-time during public health emergencies can be an effective approach to supporting vulnerable populations and resource-constrained non-profits; and (3) crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the widespread socio-emotional harm it precipitated, can be opportunities for growth if we listen to the needs of community organizations.

Comments

This is an Open Access Thesis.

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