| Collaboration Ideas |
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Here are some ways to
promote health literacy and raise awareness in your community. |
- Arrange meetings between health educators and
literacy organizations to share resources. Literacy workers can learn
how to incorporate health materials into their classrooms, while
health care workers can learn how to reach low literacy groups and can
refer patients to ESL classes.
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- Arrange a health fair at your local ESL program
that includes
literacy/health literacy materials and information on ESL
classes.
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- Invite a health educator to come and speak
about a specific health issue (like HIV or diabetes) that interests
your students. Contact your local health department, community
health center, or hospital for more information.
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- Ask local wellness programs to visit an ESL
class and perform free fitness testing and health screening, etc.
Contact your local health department, community health center, or
hospital.
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- Coordinate with your local Cooperative Extension and their
Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). Health educators from EFNEP can come to your classroom
and do nutrition analyses, demonstrate food preparation, and provide
shopping tips.
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- Read to patients in waiting rooms and provide books for kids to take
home.
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- Consider ESL students as a resource
when recruiting lay health advisors.
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- Get involved with the "Reach Out
and Read" program, which encourages pediatric providers to give
books to parents/children and encourages reading. http://www.reachoutandread.org/
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