Hispanic Health Council Explained

The Hispanic Health Council (HHC) was established in 1978 in response to the healthcare crisis in the Puerto Rican community of Connecticut.[1] The HHC is a nationally recognized community-based organization focused on research, service, training, and advocacy. It aims to improve the health and social well-being of Latinos and low-income urban populations through a comprehensive approach.

History

The Hispanic Health Council, which is based in Hartford, Connecticut, has utilized its research findings to aid in prevention, intervention, and community education programs since its founding in 1978. The organization provides services to the Hispanic community in the state of Connecticut, with emphasis on maternal and child care, family nutrition, risk reduction, youth development, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS.

Goal

The central mission of the Hispanic Health Council is to use research to enhance the effectiveness of community intervention and education programs and to use long-term involvement in the community to develop health research programs. The organization’s efforts to achieve these goals are characterized by:

• The use of state-of-the art research methodology in identifying, assessing, tracking, and responding to emergent and enduring public health problems;
• A commitment to community participation and an activist/involved approach to scholarship;
• Building broad-based community collaborators and consumer participation in prevention/intervention research;
• Technology transfer and the creation of research capacity at the grassroots level;
• Professional publication and the community dissemination of research findings through conferences, workshops, presentations, health fairs, fact sheets, newsletters, and related media;
• Development of culturally and socially competent prevention/intervention models;
• Interdisciplinary collaboration;
• Health policy and advocacy.

The Hispanic Health Council is organized in five Centers of Excellence: maternal and child health, nutrition, youth and family health and development, risk reduction, and research.

References

1. https://hispanichealthcouncil.org/about-us/history/ "Hispanic Health Council’s history begins before its founding in 1978 after the unfortunate death of a Puerto Rican girl. In the winter of 1973, an eight-month old infant died in the back of a police car due to dehydration."

External links

• Hispanic Health Council