Healthy Eating and Active Living

Mission: Offer multicultural assistance to East African immigrants/refugees in support of

immediate and long term adjustment needs
Partner and Population: Horn of Africa Services (HOAS); East African immigrants/residents
within the Rainier Vista Community and the greater Seattle area (39,000 people)
Step 1: Community Partnerships
Maree Oddoux: Horn of Africa Services (HOAS)Volunteer
and Project Coordinator
Kate: Neighborhood House Director (use of meeting
rooms) Professor Fricas: Clinical Instructor
Kelly: Rainier Vista Resident, SU Nursing Student Alumni

Step 2: Visioning
East African population of Rainier Vista will become better
educated on aspects of healthy eating and active living

Section 1: Madison H., Melanie M., Chloe K.,

Breonna B., Jessie A., Bethany E., Jackie C.,
Amy L., Yi Lian K., Nicole M., and Maxine C.

Step 3: Local Public Health System Assessment

King County 211: Provide: dental clinic, primary care, teen clinic, and 24 hours
crisis line for emergency
Public Healths steps to Health Community Health specialists for Asthma and
Diabetes
Free home visits to support people working on self managing and reducing asthma
causing triggers inside their home
Columbia Health Center: Specializes in childrens healthcare for ages 0-20
Healthy and Active Rainier Valley Coalition: Improving the health of the
residents through culturally relevant promotion of physical activity and nutrition

Step 3: Community Health Status Assessment

Step 3: Forces of Change Assessment
Culturally diverse community--59 different languages
spoken. The diverse culture creates both challenges and
benefits to health promotion due to cultural customs and
the difficulties of transition.
Initial funding for redevelopment was awarded in 1999
HUD HOPE VI grant $35 million with over $100 million in
partnership funds. The goal is create around 895
households across all income levels, including senior
housing, disability support, and rental units.
Number of organizations and programs in the community
available: Boys and Girls Club, Neighborhood House,
community parks and p-patch community gardens.
Transportation: community is close to light rail.
Funding concerns for the Horn of Africa Services. They
are strong candidates, but are not positive they will receive
more grants.

Step 3: Community Theme & Strengths Assessment

Language- The most widely-spoken language, by far, is
Swahili
Food- East African cuisine makes heavy use of grains and
tubers, which are often processed into a mash, eaten with
either bread or rice
Dress- traditional garb, and wraps covering entire body
Resources- education (ELS//job training, tutoring),
housing, support groups

Step 5: Goals, Objectives, and Strategies

Goal #1: Evaluate effectiveness of HOAS HEAL program (information retention)
Objective: collect data and analyze information retained from past participants of the HEAL
program by the end of our clinical
Strategy: Create and administer a survey for HOAS after school program. Then to
use results to develop a list of topics that should be re-evaluated in the delivery of
curriculum.
Objective: investigate who were past participants of the HEAL program before creating survey
Strategy: contact Maree from HOAS to find a time and place for distribution of the
surveys with past participants
Goal #2: Identify areas of the HEAL program curriculum that could be improved
Objective: review curriculum that was taught in HEAL within 2 weeks of receiving it
Strategy: contact Maree to obtain curriculum and have the group review it to
develop survey
Objective: identify gaps in curriculum while working with HOAS
Strategy: suggest different strategies to make the curriculum more interactive and
appropriate to the participants
Objective: provide survey results to HOAS for curriculum improvement after analyzing results
Strategy: provide the list of topics that were most answered incorrectly to HOAS so
they can emphasize these topics for next time the program is done
Goal #3: Provide HOAS with E. African cultural information related to diet, exercise, and
community health status
Objective: Expand and edit current data and information gained by conducting Map Assessments
of the E. African communitys culture within one week
Strategy: Polish the data so it is cohesive and easy to read and cite sources in the
proper APA format so HOAS can reference those resources in the future

Step 4: Strategic Issues

1) Cardiovascular health in East African Immigrant Population
2) Bridging East African Immigrant Population to currently available resources

Step 6: Action Cycle

Plan
Partnering with HOAS regarding their HEAL curriculum.
Creating a survey to assess the retained knowledge of the original program.
Research cultural information about the East African population.
Reviewing and revising previously implemented curriculum.
Implement
Distribute survey students during their afterschool program at Neighborhood House (ages K-12)
Evaluate
Formative:
Working with HOAS and their schedule
Learning to condense large amount of information collected.
Summative:
Goal #1- surveys results yielded topics that should be emphasized in the next HEAL Program
(n=15); results were sent to HOAS
Goal #2- provided comments on current curriculum, based on survey results; comments were
sent to HOAS
Goal #3- E. African cultural information was compiled and sent to HOAS for future use