Community-level Environmental Health/All Hazards Emergency Preparedness Program



Background Continued

This model was nominated and awarded the US./Mexico Border Health Commission Models of Excellence Award in 2003. Lucy Palomino and Claudia Leyva traveled to the National Community Health Workers annual conference in San Francisco in August 2003 to receive this prestigious award. Lucy Palomino, who began working as a Promotora with this project since its initiation, left SoAHEC at the end of December 2003 to work as a Nutrition Educator with the NMSU Cooperative Extension Service, and Claudia Leyva, who began with SoAHEC in August 2001, is still employed with SoAHEC and working on a variety of different projects.

Both Community Health Workers have provided hundreds of families with education on various topics such as asthma and allergies, lead in the home, pesticide use in the home, fire safety, gas safety, food safety, hazardous chemicals in the home, electrical safety and outdoor hazards. They have also conducted a numerous community presentations, some of which are hosted by a resident in their home. By offering their homes for educational purposes, they receive either a fire extinguisher or first aid kit as an incentive.

In early 2000, SoAHEC completed a manual titled, Step-by-Step Manual: Implementing an Environmental Health Education Program in your Community that describes all of the necessary steps involved to start up a similar program in other interested communities. SoAHEC staff is currently in the process of converting this manual into a toolkit that would provide in greater detail, more information on how to begin a similar project in other communities. The anticipated date of completion is by June 2004.

Jagan Butler, MBA coordinates this project and works directly with the community health workers providing trainings, entering and analyzing all of the data collected, and ensuring accurate documentation of activities.

For more information on this project, please contact:

            Program Coordinator: Jagan Butler
            Phone: 1 (505) 646-3441, ext. 16
            e-Mail: jabutler@nmsu.edu