Hispanic Health Council

Save Children; Save Successful Child Abuse Prevention Services

    HARTFORD, MARCH 11, 2010 - Advocates for children marched from the Hispanic Health Council to the state Capitol Thursday to protest potentially devastating cuts to the state’s successful child abuse and neglect prevention network.
     Gov. M. Jodi Rell wants to cut the budget for prevention services provided by the Nurturing Families Network of the Children’s Trust Fund in half, eliminating 14 sites where the program is offered and shrinking each of the remaining sites by at least one-third.
      The Hispanic Health Council is one of the 42 sites across Connecticut that now provide trained home visitors who make weekly visits to vulnerable first-time mothers from the time of a baby's birth to the 5th birthday. During the past year, the program served close to 2,000 families statewide.
   Home visitors not only teach young clients to be better parents, they help them overcome traumatic or harsh experiences from their own childhoods to become stronger adults and better role models for their children.
    But if that’s not enough, look at the bottom line, says John M. Leventhal, MD, medical director of Child Abuse Prevention Programs at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. Providing preventive services to one family costs about $3,000 a year, Leventhal says. Compare that with $30,000 a year for a case of abuse or neglect substantiated by the state Department of Children and Families or the $44,000 a year cost of an adult who might go to prison if convicted in an abuse case.
  Call the governor. Call your legislators. Tell them that when it comes to child abuse and neglect, an ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure. Save the Nurturing Families Network!!
Read what Helen Ubinas had to say in The Hartford Courant.

Hartford Shop Donates Wigs to Cancer Patients

Jangwon Son (left), owner of Hair City in Hartford, recently donated 75 new wigs for cancer patients who participate in the DIVAS Latina Cancer Support Program. Pictured with him in his Albany Avenue shop is Denise Rivera, coordinator of the DIVAS program.   

See what Susan Campbell of the Hartford Courant has to say by clicking here.

As Demand for Cancer Support Grows, Funding is Scarce

The DIVAS Latina Cancer Support program provides a bi-lingual support group and individual case management to impoverished Latinas with cancer and other health and psychosocial concerns. Services include advocacy and medical interpretation during medical appointments, education, home visits and group activities. Cancer prevention and early detection also are a priority of this program. The program is grateful for the generous support of the American Cancer Society Auxilliary and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Connecticut. Unfortunately, the program's main source of operating funding is a grant that expires this year. The Hispanic Health Council is now actively seeking funding to sustain and expand the program. To learn more, click on our Cancer Support page and see reporter Ray Villeda's news report on WFSB-Channel 3

Comadronas in Hartford Nurture Healthier Pregnancies; Build Stronger Families

In Spanish, comadrona means "midwife."

The Comadrona/Healthy Start Program at the Hispanic Health Council uses trained community health workers to promote positive pregnancy outcomes and better maternal and infant health.

800 attend Hispanic Health Council Health Fair

On Aug. 6, 2009 The Hispanic Health Council hosted its 18th annual health fair. For some of the 800 adults and children who attended, this event is the only opportunity to receive vital preventive health care and information.

Each year, the fair takes place in South Green Park and in the Hispanic Health Council’s four-story building at 175 Main St. in Hartford, CT. 

While the fair provides vital health services to the community, it also fits with the HHC’s model of practice in which research, direct service and policy advocacy inform and strengthen each other to ensure that our programs are meeting community needs.

Latino Policy Institute: Active Communities = Healthier People

In November 2008 more than 150 representatives of Connecticut’s fast growing Latino community gathered in West Hartford for the Latino Health Summit to discuss access to health care.

The event, hosted by the Hispanic Health Council’s Latino Policy Institute, marked a milestone in a journey that began more than 30 years earlier when a group of Puerto Rican leaders in Hartford formed the council to address critical health problems plaguing the Latino community. Read about it in The New York Times.