Tu Salud Si Cuenta

In keeping with its mission to provide culturally competent health careand health education to communities, Community for Children iscollaborating with the University of Texas – Houston School of PublicHealth, Brownsville Campus on their dynamic outreach project, Tu Salud Si Cuenta.

The scope of the project entails working directly with faculty andstaff to conduct literature reviews, plan programs, write mediareleases and implement activities to enhance culturally competenthealth programs and science education for families and children livingin the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Participants will have the opportunityto work on a variety of community projects, some in their infancy andothers well-established. The goal is to implement environmental changeswithin the community to provide families and children with morehealthful food (ex. the establishment of a new farmer’s market) and toencourage increased physical activity through joint projects withcommunity organizations. Participants may be asked to write newsreleases, radio segments and assist with the production of TVprogramming, or to present previously collected data from communitysurveys to interested groups.

This project will be addressing some of the root causes of obesity and malnutrition in this region.

MedicoLegal Partnership for Children

In keeping with its mission to create a world of hope for the most vulnerable and poorest of our children,Community for Children is undertaking a project to forge a partnershipbetween the Brownsville Community Health Center (BCHC) and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA).

Under the guidance of the national organization Medico-LegalPartnership for Children, BCHC and TRLA will work together in an effortto better meet the needs of the Lower Rio Grande Valley community andits children.

From the Medico-Legal Partnership for Children website:

The Medico-Legal Partnership for Children promotes collaboration between pediatricians and lawyers at sites around the country. The lawyers help to meet children’s basic needs, including food, housing, health care, education and safety. MLPC, by providing technical assistance and funding to active and nascent sites, seeks to transform the practice of pediatrics and the delivery of legal services by introducing preventative law to the clinical setting. By drawing on the strength of two powerful professions, community resources can be leveraged, and children and families can realize the promise of integrated, preventive services that promote health and well-being.

Participants in the elective will have the opportunity to help forgethis partnership from its infancy, working with both attorneys at TRLAand social workers, physicians and staff at BCHC.

Tuberculosis Research Project

In keeping with its goal to provide quality health care in resourcepoor regions, Community for Children is collaborating with Universityof Texas – Houston School of Public Health, Brownsville Campus ingathering data regarding active TB and latent TB infection within thepediatric population. The Lower Rio Grande Valley/ Northern Mexico isan endemic region for tuberculosis. Hundreds of new cases of LTBI arediagnosed at Brownsville Community Health Center (BCHC) each year. Manyare referred to the Health Department for further testing to establishwhether they have active TB.

In an effort to make the detection of TB and drug resistant TB betterand faster, BCHC is partnering with the School of Public Health to testchildren from 0-18years who have been diagnosed with LTBI to establishthe viability of a new, hopefully more sensitive screening tool,QuantiFeron Gold, and to study quantitative PCR for M. tuberculosis inthese same children. Participants will be working directly with thePrincipal Investigator analyzing data and disseminating theinformation.

Children in Immigration Detention: A Medical/Mental Health Perspective

In keeping with its support for the Universal Rights of a Child,Community for Children offers participants the opportunity to work withthe South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project ( ProBAR), anagency formed to provide high quality pro bono legal representation tothe thousands of immigrants detained in the Rio Grande Valley,primarily seeking protection in the form of political asylum. Over 400are unaccompanied children from Central America – children who havefled their home countries and journeyed to the United States withoutparents or guardians. These children are housed in federally runshelters and foster care homes while they are placed in deportationproceedings to be sent home. Many of them are escaping some form ofviolence, either physical or sexual abuse and many suffer the ongoingeffects of emotional, mental and physical trauma and illness. Theparticipants will have the opportunity to witness the conditions inwhich the children are living, hear first hand the experiences theyhave survived, and attend a court docket, while working with ProBar toestablish best practice guidelines for attorneys interviewing thesemost vulnerable of children, including identifying resources in thearea for children who have suffered trauma.