Latino Health Access Tools

A series of tools have been developed to assist county UT Extension educators and other organizations reach Latino audiences in their communities. These tools are products developed from research funded through a Fund for Rural America Grant with the United States Department of Agriculture, Improving Health Access of Latinos in Rural Kentucky and Tennessee.

• Survival Spanish Workshop program is for professionals who are frustrated because they cannot communicate with their clientele and do not want to become bilingual in Spanish. It is very different from traditional Spanish classes. Instead of conjugating verbs, participants learn key Spanish sounds, words and phrases that are essential to working with Latino clientele. With workshop resources, participants can start communicating with their Latino clientele the day after the workshop and continue to build their Spanish language skills.
• Latino Cultural Reality Workshop is a simulation workshop designed to assist non-Latino community educators and health care providers experience navigating through a health care system where one’s native language is not spoken – in this case Spanish.
• Culture Club Program brings together Latino women and non-    Latino women from the community to increase understanding between the two cultures, to build language skills and to develop a basis for friendship and community support. By improving cultural competence among participants, negative stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings can be overcome.  Culture Clubs can be formed with other age and gender groups.
• Low Literacy Spanish Health Publications have been developed based on focus groups of Spanish-speaking immigrants and health care professionals.
• Lessons Learned About Sustaining a Coalition Targeting Latinos have been compiled to guide others in successfully reaching this audience.