RECENT ARTICLES

A New Life for Latinas Affected by Cancer

3 California Schools Recognized for Boosting Latino Performance

Resources for Latino Families Affected by Foreclosure

Gear up for Cancer Awareness Month in February, with CDC Resources

“El Cancer Nos Afecta a Todos” and we need your help!

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A New Life for Latinas Affected by Cancer

While there are many organizations that offer cancer prevention services and participate in cancer prevention campaigns, organizations serving Latina women who have been diagnosed with cancer are few and far between.

When Nueva Vida (New Life) was founded in 1996, it was the only organization in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area to provide support services specifically to Latinas affected by cancer. Many Latinas were becoming lost in the health systems, and only could find limited information about cancer in Spanish. Service providers had difficulty understanding the unique cultural and linguistic challenges that Latina women faced, and rates of early detection of cancer among Latinas were dismally low.

Latina women were slower than other women to get screened for cancer due to lack of information, lack of health insurance, language barriers, and a generalized sense of intimidation by the complex health systems in the United States.

Nueva Vida was formed by a group of Hispanic professionals who were cancer survivors themselves. Intimately aware of the challenges faced by Latina women, they began providing services to increase access to diagnostic, treatment and counseling services. They built partnerships with hospitals, health clinics, and private doctors in the region, and aligned themselves with research and social service organizations that were able to provide discounted or free services to women without health insurance.

Today Nueva Vida offers a range of services including support groups for women affected by cancer, groups for caregivers, and cancer survivors. Their team of 6 certified counselors provides case management and one-on-one counseling services. They conduct community outreach campaigns and organize cancer screening tests for groups of Latina women who otherwise would not get screened. Nueva Vida’s team seeks out the appropriate treatment & payment options for women, and helps them navigate the complex health systems. When women need moral support, help with translation, or transportation to their doctor’s appointments, Nueva Vida personnel or volunteers are available to accompany them.

All services provided by Nueva Vida are completely free of charge, thanks to the organization’s many donors which include private foundations and some international organizations.

In 2008 Nueva Vida helped some 350 Latina women in the DC metropolitan area get screened for cancer, and provided support services to 100 Latina women diagnosed with cancer. As many as 70% of the women who seek help at Nueva Vida speak no English and many would be unable to receive the care they need were it not for the advocacy, support and referrals provided by the organization.

Larisa Caicedo, Nueva Vida’s Executive Director, cites the uniquely Latino environment offered by Nueva Vida as one of the organization’s greatest strengths. Women can receive the information and support they need in Spanish from other women just like them—who understand the unique cultural issues that they might be facing—in an environment of trust and mutual respect.

Ms. Caicedo shares this advice with other service providers: “Collaboration is the most important. Reinventing the wheel doesn’t work. We need to build partnerships to work with specialized organizations, and make sure that we address the community from a culturally-sensitive perspective.”

For more information about Nueva Vida, visit their website at www.nueva-vida.org or send an email to Show email address.

3 California Schools Recognized for Boosting Latino Performance

By Carla Rivera, LA Times

LOS ANGELES– Three public schools in California led the nation in helping Latino students outperform their counterparts in other states on Advanced Placement exams in Spanish language, Spanish literature and world history, according to a report released Wednesday by the College Board.

Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach was cited as the public school with the largest number of Latino students from the class of 2008 earning a 3 or better in AP world history. Exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, and many colleges and universities give students course credit for scores of 3 or higher. Advanced Placement courses offer college-level material in a variety of subjects.

Latino students at Fontana High School outpaced their peers on the AP Spanish-language exam, and San Ysidro High School in San Diego had the most Latino students who succeeded on the AP Spanish literature exam.

Overall, 30.8% of California students in the class of 2008 took at least one AP exam during high school, compared with 25% nationwide. More than 20% of California students received a 3, 4 or 5 on at least one exam, ranking California sixth in the nation. Maryland ranked first, with 23.4% of its students achieving a 3 or better.

Miguel Solorio, a 2008 graduate of Wilson High who earned a 5 on the AP world history exam, said the courses were a good steppingstone to his studies at Cal State Long Beach. Solorio took nine AP courses and earned enough credits to place him as a junior in only his second semester in college.

“It’s a very good foundation of information if you take them seriously,” said Solorio, a history major. “I’m taking all upper-division classes, and in my Latin American nation class, for example, I already know about decolonization because of the AP world history class I took.”

One of the key criticisms of the AP program is that school districts in poor, urban areas have far fewer offerings than more affluent districts. Some private schools have dropped AP classes, creating similar courses instead that officials say are more challenging and less dependent on rote learning. But the College Board cites research that AP participants have better college grades and are much more likely to earn a college degree in four years.

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Source: LA Times

Resources for Latino Families Affected by Foreclosure

Shortly before the foreclosure crisis, Latinos were accumulating wealth primarily through home ownership. Between 1996 and 2006, Latino expenditures on mortgage interest and charges had increased by 216%, bringing Hispanics and Non-Hispanics close to financial parity.

When the foreclosure crisis hit, it hit Latino communities harder.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending, in 2004 Latinos were between 29% and 142% more likely than Whites to receive a higher-rate loan. Predatory lenders advertising in Spanish then capitalized on language barriers in complex negotiation processes, and as ACORN reports, steered one- third to one-half of subprime borrowers to higher cost loans, despite the availability of better loan options.

Predatory lenders held a larger share of the mortgage market in predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods than in non-minority neighborhoods. A collaborative study released by the Woodstock Institute showed that high-risk lenders held 18.8% of the market share in neighborhoods that were comprised of over 80% minority population and only 5.3% in neighborhoods where minorities were less than 10% of the population.

These practices led to the foreclosure crisis and translate into Latino borrowers losing between $76 billion and $98 billion on mortgages made between 2000 and 2008 according to United for a Fair Economy. Alongside these losses, ACORN predicts an additional $32 billion lost due to falling property values. This is devastating to the financial well-being of the Latino community.

The rental market has also been affected by the foreclosures, leaving many renters evicted on short notice. This, in turn, increases rates of Latinos living in overcrowded conditions, the secondary symptoms of which include: homelessness, dependence on public services, and neighborhood conflict.

To read more about how the foreclosure crisis is affecting Latino communities, visit the Latinos United website or read their publication on Latinos and foreclosure.

Resources for Families Facing Foreclosure

A number of resources exist to help families facing foreclosure navigate the complex mortage systems and legislation.  The LSC Resource Information site offers a series of foreclosure resources to help legal aid services address issues related to home ownership; renter issues; building a home foreclosure mitigation project and others.  It also includes community legal education resources, pro-bono projects, and other resources that service providers can refer clients to.  Visit LRI’s Foreclosure Resources page for these and other resources.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco offers several tools for service providers seeking to mitigate the impact of home foreclosures, including a four-step toolkit. 

An excellent resource for families who are thinking about purchasing a home, is Freddie Mac’s “Don’t Borrow Trouble” website which offers tips to help families avoid predatory lending practices.

Gear up for Cancer Awareness Month in February, with CDC Resources

Given the critical need to increase cancer awareness and early detection within the Latino community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have produced a number of resources that are accessible to the general public and service providers. February is Cancer Awareness Month, and there is no better time to start reaching the Latino community to encourage cancer screening!

While there are many great resources in English on the CDC website, we have highlighted some of their new resources in Spanish below that you can share with the communities you serve:

• General cancer prevention and control site
• Cáncer colorrectal
• Cánceres ginecológicos
• Cánceres hematológicos
• Cáncer de mama
• Cáncer de piel
• Cáncer de próstata
• Cáncer de pulmón
• Disparidades de salud del cáncer
• Supervivencia del cáncer

In addition to the information found on these sites, the CDC’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) provides breast and cervical cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment to low-income, medically underserved, and uninsured women (emphasizing recruitment of minority women) through states, tribes, and territories. They have partners throughout the country, who are indexed and easily accessible on-line. To find a NBCCEDP member in your state, click here.

“El Cancer Nos Afecta a Todos” and we need your help!

Did you know that research has shown that physician recommendation is one of the most important factors that influence cancer screening rates? Health care providers play a vital role in increasing the use of preventive services, and thereby decreasing cancer mortality rates. Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Latinos, but many of the cases could easily be prevented through routine screening and other preventive services.

Acceso Hispano (an initiative of the Self Reliance Foundation) will soon be launching “El Cancer Nos Afecta a Todos” (Cancer Affects All of Us)—a national Spanish-language communications campaign financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—and we need your help. The campaign will reach Spanish-speaking Latinos through both mass media channels and grassroots outreach activities, and strengthen links between community-based service providers and Latino communities. Ultimately the campaign’s objective is to increase cancer screening among Latinos and thereby decrease cancer mortality rates.

In preparation for the campaign we are actively seeking to expand partnerships with community health service providers and cancer screening centers. The campaign’s print, radio, Internet and text messages will build awareness of the importance of cancer screening, and encourage the public to contact our Linea de Ayuda (helpline) by phone or by email to find the location of their local cancer screening centers that provide bilingual or Latino-friendly services. In order to better serve the Latino community, Acceso Hispano is therefore building our database of relevant community health and cancer-related service providers.

If you or your organization provides health care services to Latinos or cancer-related services to the general public, please contact us! We can refer new clients to you, or help you identify the appropriate providers in your region so that you can refer your clients to cancer screening services. We will also be providing educational materials in Spanish related to various cancers and the importance of prevention that you can share with your community.

Why Focus on Cancer?
According to the research conducted by the American Cancer Society and the Intercultural Cancer Council, cancer is the second leading cause of death among Hispanic adults after heart disease. Hispanic women have two to three times the cervical cancer rates of non-Hispanic white women. Hispanic men and women have between 30-90% higher rates of stomach cancer than non-Hispanic populations. Lung cancer and breast cancer are the deadliest cancers among Hispanic men and Hispanic women, respectively.

Despite these alarming statistics, only 38% of Hispanic women age 40 and older regularly receive mammograms, and Hispanic women are less likely to receive regular pap smears than non-Hispanic white women. Deaths from breast and cervical cancers could easily be avoided if cancer screening rates increased among women at risk. Unfortunately, rates of preventive cancer screenings are proportionally linked to insurance coverage– the less insured an ethnic group is, the less likely they are to be screened. Latinos are the most likely of any ethnic in the United States to be under-insured due to a disproportionate lack of job-related insurance.

Furthermore, due to a lack of preventative screenings, Latinos have a disproportionately difficult time with cancer. According to the Volume 4 edition of the NCI Cancer Bulletin published in April 17, 2007, Hispanic women have significantly different experiences with breast cancer than non-Hispanic women do. The Hispanic women studied were diagnosed at a younger age; at a later stage of disease; with larger, higher grade tumors; and with less treatable estrogen- and progesterone-negative tumors, reported the investigators led by Dr. A. Tyler Watlington at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.