The aim of this project is to develop and test a methodology and curriculum for effectively transferring cancer education and prevention information and educational skills from health professionals to community-based lay health promoters and subsequently from an initial group of lay health promoters to successor groups. The project responds to the need to reduce barriers to cancer prevention, screening, early detection and treatment for Hispanics, especially poor hispanics and those living in rural areas. It responds tot he national health promotion and disease prevention objectives of healthy People 2000 and tot he public education and control of Breast and Cervical Cancers. The project will cross-train an existing group of Hispanic, bilingual, bicultural female and adolescent lay health educators/promoters in cancer prevention, education and support. The project will also recruit cancer survivors from Santa Cruz County, Arizona and train them to organize and facilitate cancer support groups. After gaining experience in the community, these promoters and support group facilitators will in turn train a new cohort of promoters and facilitators. This project is based on previous research and pilot interventions that establish the validity of the basic educational model -- the use of community-based lay health promoters. It goes beyond previous work by focusing on the methodology of transfer of information and skills from health professionals to lay health promoters and then from the lay health promoters to a succeeding cohort of lay promoters. The ability of a community to sustain its own education is particularly significant for rural communities anf for minority communities that lack role models among professional providers.
