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 El Paso, TX, September 14, 2010 (PAHO/WHO).- The
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) aware of the relationship between obesity
and lack of physical activity, and park utilization has taken the initiative to
analyze, adjust and validate a tool for measuring disparities in park use within
the city of El Paso. This tool is named the Community Park Audit tool (CPAT)
and it is a validated instrument developed to systematically asses the features
and amenities within parks and how residents use them. UTEP in collaboration
with The Pan American
Health Organization/World Health Organization U.S.-Mexico Border Office (PAHO/WHO)
are inviting UTEP faculty, students, and interested public health and
recreational professionals to attend this one day workshop: Using the Community
Park Audit Tool (CPAT) in Public Health Research, to be held on:
Monday September 20, 2010
9:00
am to 4:30 pm
For more
information and to register
Please contact: Dr. Paula Ford
UTEP Department
of Public Health Sciences
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About the workshop: Using the Community Park Audit Tool (CPAT)
This
workshop directly builds upon two complementary, ongoing projects addressing
childhood obesity:
- The Healthy Kids Healthy
Communities, a national program of the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) whose primary goal is to implement
healthy eating and active living policy - and environmental - change
initiatives. This program places special emphasis on reaching children who
are at highest risk for obesity on the basis of race/ethnicity, income
and/or geographic location. El Paso Texas is one of the 50 cities selected
by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for this program and is led by the PAHO/WHO
U.S.-Mexico Border Office.
- The second one is Disparities
in physical Activity Environments by Deprivation and Acculturation at the
Neighborhood Level within a U.S.-Mexico Border Community, a project led by
Dr. Paula Ford with recently awarded funding by the Hispanic Health
Disparities Research Center at The University of Texas at El Paso. This
project seeks to systematically measure geographic disparities in the
availability of park resources by neighborhood socioeconomic status in El
Paso County.
Workshop objectives:
The
overall goal of this workshop is to enhance physical activity, to reduce
childhood obesity and other chronic diseases risk factors, including diabetes
through the improvement of parks and recreational resources. This will be
achieved by increasing the understanding and assessment of public recreational
spaces used by children in El Paso, TX. The specific objectives of this
workshop are the following:
1.Train students, researches,
and community members in the use of the Community Park Audit Tool (CPAT)
2.Obtain input and guidance
from community members, local, and invited experts on the relevance and
potential adaptations of CPAT for use within a border, predominantly
Hispanic community context
3.Provide a forum for community
members, researches, and students to discuss how results from El Paso CPAT
assessments can be used to influence polices that foster the creation and
maintenance of healthy physical activity environmental throughout El Paso
County
Training
will be provided by Dr. Andrew Kaczynski, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of
the Physical Activity and Public Health Laboratory at Kansas State University.
Dr. Kaczynski’s research on the built environment and physical activity has
been funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the National
Recreational and Park Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Additional workshop leaders include faculty from UTEP and PAHO/WHO.
For more information please contact: Lorely Ambriz, M.S.I.S, Knowledge Management & Communication Advisor.
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| Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) / A Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) United States-Mexico Border Office: 5400 Suncrest Dr. Ste. C-4 El Paso, TX 79912. Office (915) 845-5950 Ext. 2523 / Cel (915) 449-3040 / Fax (915) 845-4361.
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