Health Equity Initiatives
Initiatives tailored to reflect the diversity of cultures within a community are more likely to be effective than those aimed at a general population. The Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Branch (NEOPB) aims to reduce health disparities related to nutrition, physical activity, and related chronic disease through four linguistically appropriate and culturally tailored social marketing initiatives for African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, and Latinos.
African American Initiative
The African American Initiative educates and empowers African American communities by providing culturally relevant education about healthy eating and physical activity. The African American Initiative provides this education in the multitude of venues where low-income Californians live, shop, and worship. One of the Initiative’s key interventions, the African American Body and Soul initiative, is included in the USDA SNAP-Ed Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States.
Latino Initiative
The Latino initiative educates and empowers Latino adults and their families to reduce the risk of chronic disease, especially cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. The Latino Initiative partners with many public, private, and nonprofit organizations throughout California to create environments where healthy behaviors are socially supported and accessible.
Asian American Initiative
The Asian American Initiative is a public health initiative started in 2013. Its purpose is to educate and empower Asian American adults and their families with knowledge and skills to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables and ways to enjoy daily physical activity. Currently, the Asian American Initiative is focusing on culturally adapting and translating nutrition education materials into Hmong, Vietnamese, and Chinese as well as building partnerships with community organizations working with those ethnic communities.
American Indian/Alaska Native Initiative
The American Indian/Alaska Native Initiative is a public health initiative started in 2013. Its purpose is to educate and empower American Indian and Alaska Native adults and their families with the skills and knowledge to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables and ways to enjoy daily physical activity. The American Indian/Alaska Native Initiative works with communities in select urban and rural tribal areas of California to develop culturally appropriate materials, and to identify community strengths and assets to enhance future partnerships and outreach efforts.
The African American Initiative and the Latino Initiative have been added to the USDA SNAP-Ed Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States. This toolkit recognizes model evidence-based obesity prevention strategies and interventions appropriate for SNAP-Ed.
For more information regarding Health Equity Initiatives, please contact Eugenio.Garcia@cdph.ca.gov or 916-449-5331.