Project Summary
The Family Voices Family Wisdom approach has demonstrated strong appeal to community-based organizations as well as to Spanish-speaking and American Indian families. Our partners have embraced the Family Voices Family Wisdom project for several reasons, including the following:
- It develops a holistic, positive approach focused on healthy eating and healthy activities—in particular, traditional foods and activities.
- It adapts to cultural context through multiculturalism and the use of community brokers and trainers from the same cultural background as that of the participants.
- It builds on a foundation of acknowledging barriers and oppression that have contributed to poor health outcomes for people of color.
- It provides a framework for engagement between community-based organizations and communities of color.
The priority populations for the Family Voices Family Wisdom project are American Indian and Spanish-speaking families, including those who encounter additional barriers from living in rural areas and/or working as migrant laborers. In addition to disparate access to health care, Spanish-speaking and American Indian families encounter barriers to good health from culturally inappropriate care. The Family Voices Family Wisdom approach has developed as a collaboration between communities and community-based organizations, and it is adaptable to local context, including cultural context.
Our goals for the current phase of the project are to 1) continue to improve relationships and capacity building, 2) collaborate effectively within the project team and with community liaisons and representatives, 3) develop comparative effectiveness research (CER) questions, 4) identify possible interventions for comparative research, and 5) engage in strategic planning to prioritize and address our needs to prepare for CER.