Salud Sí: a case study for the use of participatory evaluation in creating effective and sustainable community-based health promotion.

Participatory evaluation can be an essential tool for community-based organizations in tailoring programs to the needs of the populations they serve. This article provides a case study of Salud Sí, a promotora-driven health promotion program designed to encourage physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and stress reduction among Mexican American women. Through a partnership between a community health center and an academic institution, we describe how the participatory evaluation framework is applied over a 10-year period throughout the stages of program development, implementation, and sustainability. Partners used the results to identify the essential elements of the health promotion program.

Taking a broad approach to public health program adaptation: adapting a family-based diabetes education program.

Diabetes health disparities among Hispanic populations have been countered with federally funded health promotion and disease prevention programs. Dissemination has focused on program adaptation to local cultural contexts for greater acceptability and sustainability. Taking a broader approach and drawing on our experience in Mexican American communities at the U.S.-Mexico Border, we demonstrate how interventions are adapted at the intersection of multiple cultural contexts: the populations targeted, the community- and university-based entities designing and implementing interventions, and the field team delivering the materials. Program adaptation involves negotiations between representatives of all contexts and is imperative in promoting local ownership and program sustainability.