The Partners: South Valley Partners in Environmental Justice propose to address reductions of environmental health threats to the predominantly low income, Hispanic South Valley populations by bridging communication gaps between environmental health researchers, healthcare providers, and the community. The Partnership will work in collaboration with the community to identify, define, and assess the disproportionate burden of environmental health risks and the related disparaging health outcomes in the South Valley. Using a combination of provider, promatora, and community-based trainings, it will enhance the collective community capacity to identify and respond to environmental health concerns. The trained promotoras will increase community awareness of individual and collective pollution prevention strategies, and they will increase environmental hazard exposure reduction strategies of Valley families. The Context: The South Valley, a socioeconomically disadvantaged and predominantly Hispanic community, has environmental justice health risks from two Superfund sites, the majority of the county's Brownfields sites, and a shallow aquifer challenged by septic tanks, industrialization, and traditional farming practices. The residents lack a basic understanding of the environmental health issues that disproportionately affect them and an infrastructure to partner with others to effectively address these issues. Project Objectives: South Valley Partners in Environmental Justice has four objectives: 1. To assess the environmental health risks and related health outcomes in the South Valley from the community, provider, and epidemiologic perspectives, utilizing a multifaceted approach with a variety of methodologies. 2.To assess community and healthcare provider environmental health training needs and to provide environmental health training based on those identified needs. 3. To recruit and train environmental health promotoras from the impacted community. 4. To develop a community advisory structure to include the promotoras and other representatives from the area.
