New Routes to Community Health
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Images
Mr. Chankong of Philadelphia learns to use a video camera.
Mexican youth in Chicago perform a piece they wrote.
Veronica of Oakland edits her own story of domestic violence.
Website
Topics
Arts & Culture: Documentary, Dramatic Narrative, Television, Theater
Health: Disease/treatment, Nutrition/Malnutrition
Human Development: Capacity Building, Labor, Migration, Poverty, Refugees, Shelter & Housing, Social Exclusion, Youth
Human Rights: Civil Rights, Social Exclusion
Information & Media: Communication, Culture, Freedom of Expression, Internet, Media
Politics: Activism, Civil Society, Democracy, Globalization
Identity Niches
African, Asian, Asian American, Islamic, Latino, Senior/Aging, Women, Youth/Teen
Budget
Raised to date: $4,000,000.00
Estimate to complete: $250,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $4,250,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 05/05/2009
Status
Production
Media Type
Web
Project End Use
Internet
Key Personnel
Beth Mastin
Program Director
Beth Mastin is a Media Consultant and Community Relations Specialist with 25 years of experience in nonprofit management, with an emphasis on developing public service initiatives around health and healthcare.Her expertise is in directing competitive grant processes related to programming and outreach, and leading design or consultation efforts for national and local outreach and community engagement campaigns.
As Co-Director from 1996–2006 of Sound Partners for Community Health, Beth and her team of media specialists provided technical assistance to broadcasters working within their communities to develop programming and outreach that focused on local healthcare problem-solving and partnership-building. With New Routes to Community Health, Mastin, in her capacity as Program Director of the National Program Office, expands the Sound Partners model to improve the health of new immigrants and refugees using locally focused media, supporting local partnerships, and acting as a hub for information exchange. She holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Gustavus Adolphus College.
Brenda Gonzalez
Deputy Director
Brenda González is the Deputy Director for New Routes to Community Health. Previously she was Manager of Interpreter Services and Cultural Outreach at Dean Health System in Madison. She is a founding member of the Wisconsin Coalition for Linguistic Access to Healthcare and belongs to numerous other healthcare and Latino organizations.
González brings more than a dozen years’ experience working on access to healthcare for linguistically isolated groups, community outreach, and partnerships. She has a wide breadth of experience in providing training and technical assistance on issues of cultural competence and community building.
She holds a B.A. in Social Psychology from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Xochimilco, Mexico City and has done graduate work in Communicative Disorders and Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)
Atlanta, GA – HEARMe. East African immigrants and their Atlanta neighbors will collaborate to create on-air, online and on-stage productions promoting health and cultural competency within their community. Partners are Emory University, Sagal Radio and WRFG, community radio station.
Boston, MA - Twa Zanmi (Three Friends). This project will create telenovelas to help Haitian immigrants recognize and respond to symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety. Partners are the Haitian American Public Health Initiatives, Haitian Media Network and the University of MassachusettsBoston.
Chicago, IL - Salud: Healing through the Arts. Young people are producing radio programming and live theater events focused on helping Latin American youth make better health decisions. Partners are Latinos Progresando, the National Museum of Mexican Art and WRTE, Radio Arte.
Los Angeles, CA – Navigating Health Care in the U.S. for Chinese American Seniors. This project will develop television news features and instructional DVDs to help Chinese American seniors overcome cultural, language and navigational barriers and communicate more effectively with their adult children caretakers and health care providers. Partners are the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training; Chinatown Service Center and KSCI TV/LA 18.
Oakland, CA - Abriendo las Cajas (Opening Boxes) – This project will develop media aimed at intimate partner (domestic) violence within the Latin American immigrant population in the Fruitvale neighborhood. Partners are La Clinica de la Raza, Bay Area Video Coalition and ZeroDivide.
Philadelphia, PA – Our Stories, Our Health. This project, which will feature immigrant Laotian and Vietnamese immigrants telling their stories on digital video created by Southeast Asian elders, is intended to encourage discussion on health disparities and communication barriers faced by immigrants, with a focus on the problem of high blood pressure. Partners are the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC), University of Pennsylvania, WHYY public broadcasting, Thomas Jefferson University and Temple University.
San Francisco, CA - Domestic Worker Safety and Dignity Project. In this project, domestic worker advocates will develop a social marketing campaign advocating healthier working conditions for domestic workers. Partners include La Raza Centro Legal, University of California/Berkeley, and Underground Advertising.
Twin Cities, MN - Egal Shidad: Stories of Somali Health. This project will use folk tales and other cultural approaches to create a series of stories on Somali health for radio, television and classroom use. Partners are the Confederation of Somali Community, ECHO Minnesota, KFAI Community Radio and Saint Paul Neighborhood Network.
Funders
| Name | Amount | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | $4,000,000.00 | 08/01/2007 |
Location
4510 Regent Street
Madison, WI, 53705
Short Synopsis
New Routes: Using stories to improve immigrant health. Immigrant organizations and media makers have formed partnerships to improve the health of immigrants by making media that best suits their needs.
Description/Treatment
In the eight communities, immigrant groups, media makers and prominent community institutions are working together to produce original content in English as well as in immigrants’ first languages, including Amharic, Chinese, Creole, French, Lao, Somali, Spanish, Swahili and Vietnamese. Grants were given to collaborations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St Paul, Oakland, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Projects include telenovelas about treating mental ilnesses in Boston’s Haitian community, a social marketing campaign to improve the working conditions of domestic workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, and DVD vignettes to help Chinese elderly navigate the health care system in Los Angeles. Using a wide range of media such as television and radio features, telenovelas, first person narratives, live theater, print, the Internet and social marketing campaigns, New Routes projects will map the often difficult terrain of immigrant life in the U.S.
“Immigrants are the new leaders and pathfinders on the route to the American Dream,” said Beth Mastin, national program director of New Routes. “Our program recognizes the challenges faced by immigrants, but we also see the opportunities they bring to renew our economy with hard work and strengthen our society with strong family and community values. Using today’s communications tools, and building leadership through collaboration with stakeholders, New Routes helps these 21st Century leaders create that American Dream.”
Media content created by the eight projects are housed at www.newroutes.org and are available for any community to use. Additionally, the Web site serves as a resource for multimedia, research and news on the topic of immigrant community health.
The flavor of the media and the involvement of immigrants as media makers can best be seen in the stories of those involved. Here are a few short examples:
• Hussien Mohamed left his home in Ethiopia with bread his mother had made for him and less than a dollar in his pocket and he walked--for a week--to get to Mogadishu and then made his way to Atlanta. Today, he broadcasts health shows in Somali from the Sagal Radio studio at Emory University. He believes in Web 2.0 tools. He said, “I am going to make Sagal Radio big on YouTube. I am going to fill your New Routes blog with Sagal Radio!”
• Ms. Ba Nguyen is from Saigon where, in the mid 70s, her husband was arrested, sent to a reeducation camp and she was forced out of her home. She’s in Philly now. Along with other South East Asian elders, she has recently learned to use a video camera and produce video. She’s a quick study. Not long after she started the classes did she begin to help teach the class. The group is making videos to help Lao and Vietnamese elders deal with hypertension.
• In St. Paul, 1st time producer Mukhtar Gaaddasaar is working with Steve Brunsell and Sara Rohde. They’ve made Somali folk lore character Egal Shidad come to life in video. Egal Shidad himself is persuading Somali refugees to get help for depression and anxiety. Illustrated Egal stories, interviews with health experts, and one with an Imam can all be found in their one hour video. It was broadcast on St. Paul Neighborhood Network cable access TV and KFAI community radio and made into a DVD. It’s also on the Web. The producers have filled requests for the DVD coming from 22 states and 11 countries.
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