Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation (CBWF) proposes REACH, Rural Education and Awareness for Community Health. The project will target Hispanic women who are medically underserved or unserved in geographically isolated communities, in South Texas. The project’s service area includes the counties of Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces, Refugio, and San Patricio.

Lack of available resources exposes residents within colonias to greater risks of serious illness and increase interests in preventative care promotion among the population. Women living within colonias experience high poverty rates, language barriers, illiteracy, higher than average ...

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Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation (CBWF) proposes REACH, Rural Education and Awareness for Community Health. The project will target Hispanic women who are medically underserved or unserved in geographically isolated communities in South Texas. The project’s service area includes the counties of Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces, Refugio, and San Patricio.

Lack of available resources exposes residents within colonias to greater risks of serious illness and increase interests in preventative care promotion among the population. Women living within colonias experience high poverty rates, language barriers, illiteracy, higher than average unemployment rates, insufficient public transportation, lack of medical providers and health benefit coverage, and unfamiliarity with available government assistance programs (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2008; HAC, 2013). REACH will overcome barriers to accessing preventive services by going out to conduct services to women within their own communities and providing transportation to preventive and screening services.

From 2007-2011, incidence rate of cervical cancer in Texas was reported as 12.1 cases per 100,000 (TCR, 2011). Incidence and mortality for cervical cancer in the service area is estimated at 118 new cases, with an expected 34 deaths in 2014 (TCR, 2014). In 2010, 25% of Hispanic women over the age of 18 years in the proposed service area had not received a pap smear within 3 years compared to 19.4% of Non-Hispanic White women (CHS, 2010).

Breast cancer remains the most diagnosed cancer among Hispanic women in Texas. From 2007-2011, the incidence of breast cancer was reported as 88.1 per 100,000 in Texas (TCR, 2011). Breast cancer incidence and mortality for the proposed service area, is estimated at 1,134 for new cases and 206 expected deaths in 2014 (TCR, 2014). In 2010, it was reported that 36% of Hispanic women over the age of 40 in the proposed catchment area had not received a mammogram within the last 2 years compared to 27.3% Non-Hispanic White women (CHS, 2010).

REACH will integrate community health worker program models to deliver targeted outreach, evidence-based education, and navigation services to provide screening and early detection services of breast and cervical cancer to facilitate improvements in health status and quality of life. REACH will employ members of target populations that share the same social, cultural, and economic characteristics to identify the target population. REACH staff will utilize culturally appropriate evidence-based education to facilitate health promotion to improve health behaviors related to the prevention of breast and cervical cancer. REACH will provide navigation support services to assist in linkage, transportation, and completion of breast and cervical cancer prevention screenings.

The overall goal is to increase early detection rates of breast and cervical cancer in South Texas through advocacy, education, and community collaboration. REACH will reach an estimated 24,000 people through public outreach activities and serve 5,551 Hispanic women with targeted outreach, evidence-based education, navigation services, and volunteer recruitment.

As of August 2014, Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas only had 2 active prevention projects in the 12-county area putting REACH in the position to adapt new programs and deliver services which have been previously unavailable (CPRIT, 2014). REACH utilizes existing resources, and acts as a conduit to navigate marginalized Hispanic women to health initiatives, providing access to cancer education, screening, diagnosis, and treatment.

REACH will utilize social media and a live chat system through agency website to disseminate culturally and linguistically appropriate health related information and connect clients with program staff in real time to provide answers and/or coordinate services.

REACH will be unique and possibly a major impact on breast and cervical cancer prevention and early detection for the geographically isolated and underserved in South Texas, because it will be the first to integrate service delivery within rural communities and colonias. By establishing lasting social networks, through outreach to delivering education, creating lasting community partnerships, strengthening care coordination, and instilling self-efficacy in the target population, REACH will create a systematic change, which will lead to sustained desired health behaviors.

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