Community Engagement in the BE SAGE Project: Reducing COVID-19 in Hispanic and Low-Income Preschoolers via Testing and Open-Air Garden-Based Education

Abstract

Objective

Back to Early Care and Education Safely With Sustainability via Active Garden Education (BE SAGE) involved COVID-19 testing and a free garden-based physical activity and nutrition program at early care and education centers with primarily Hispanic/Latino enrollment. This article describes the project community engagement plan, process, and outcomes focusing on deliberate and intentional staffing, an extensive online presence, and focused outreach.

Methods

BE SAGE purposefully hired bilingual (English/Spanish) and bicultural staff; developed and maintained a large bilingual online presence (website, newsletters, social media), and fostered community partnerships with community health workers (CHWs) and dedicated staff. Hiring records, online internet records, staff calendars, and field notes were coded and tabulated.

Results

84% of the 13-member research team and all CHWs identified as Hispanic or Latino. Predominantly US users accessed the website (N = 3,108), 36.9% of received electronic newsletters were opened, and 1126 followed social media across four platforms. The Outreach Specialist fostered existing relationships and created new partnerships. With the help of CHWs, 562 research participants completed at least one COVID-19 test.

Conclusions

By prioritizing representative staffing hires, expending substantial resources on an online presence, and establishing and nurturing our community partnerships, our BE SAGE community engagement approach helped to achieve study aims and create lasting community impact. Community engagement and partnerships to forward research requires ample funding and dedicated representative hiring polices to cultivate and maintain community relationships with asset-driven outcomes.

Policy Implications

Funding agencies must prioritize community engagement in research outcomes to ensure robust, meaningful scientific discovery and innovation.

Keywords

child preschool COVID-19 testing return to school medically underserved area vulnerable populations Hispanic or Latino educational early intervention exercise child nutrition sciences social participation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Lewin

. Action research and minority problems. In: Lewin

. (ed). Resolving social conflicts. Harper & Row, 1946.

Israel

Coombe

Cheezum

, et al. Community-based participatory research: a capacity-building approach for policy advocacy aimed at eliminating health disparities. Am J Public Health 2010; 100(11): 2094–2102. DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2009.170506.

Lee

Soltero

Mama

, et al. Developing a transcultural academic-community partnership to arrest obesity. Int Q Community Health Educ 2013; 34(3): 215–233. DOI: 10.2190/IQ.34.3.b.

Lee

Joseph

Blackman Carr

, et al. Still striding toward social justice? Redirecting physical activity research in a post-COVID-19 world. Transl Behav Med 2021; 11(6): 1205–1215. DOI: 10.1093/tbm/ibab026.

Webb Hooper

Compton

Walsh

, et al. Harnessing the power of community-engaged science to facilitate access and uptake of COVID-19 testing: RADx-UP. Am J Public Health 2022; 112(S9): S854–S857. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307105.

Lee

Todd

, et al. Acceptability and feasibility of saliva-delivered PCR Coronavirus 2019 tests for young children. Pediatrics 2023; 152(Suppl 1): e2022060352D. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2022-060352D.

Lee

Lorenzo

Szeszulski

, et al. Design and methodology of a cluster-randomized trial in early care and education centers to meet physical activity guidelines: sustainability via active garden education (Sage). Contemp Clin Trials 2019; 77: 8–18. DOI: 10.1016/j.cct.2018.12.003.

White

Liburd

Coronado

. Addressing racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 among school-aged children: are we doing enough? Prev Chronic Dis 2021; 18: E55. DOI: 10.5888/pcd18.210084.

Lee

Adamus-Leach

Cheung

, et al. Researching those who have the most to gain: focused physical activity promotion in lower socioeconomic populations. Curr Cardiovasc Risk Rep 2012; 6(4): 355–361. DOI: 10.1007/s12170-012-0243-3.

10.

Long

Stewart

McElfish

. Health research participants are not receiving research results: a collaborative solution is needed. Trials 2017; 18(1): 449. DOI: 10.1186/s13063-017-2200-4.

11.

Lee

Soltero

Ledoux

, et al. Sustainability via active garden education: translating policy to practice in early care and education. J Sch Health 2019; 89(4): 257–266. DOI: 10.1111/josh.12734.

12.

Bruening

Nadalet

Ashok

, et al. Preschoolers’ parent and teacher/director perceptions of returning to early childcare education during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Publ Health 2022; 22(1): 2270. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-14409-w.

13.

National Association for the Education of Young Children . NAEYC homepage. Accessed August 4, 2023. https://www.naeyc.org/

14.

Suh

Lorenzo

, et al. Developing and evaluating newsletters for parent engagement in sustainability via active garden education (SAGE). Int J Environ Res Public Health 2022; 19(8): 4617. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19084617.

15.

European Union Council of European Union . Common European Framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Accessed October 3, 2024. https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages

16.

Lorts

. The language of health: an editorial style guide to effectively communicate to the public. Arizona Department of Health Services, 2021. https://www.azhealthzone.org/style-guide/

17.

Corbie

D'Agostino

Knox

, et al. RADx-UP coordination and data collection: an infrastructure for COVID-19 testing disparities research. Am J Public Health 2022; 112(S9): S858–S863. DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2022.306953.

18.

Park

. Back to basics: direct, referral or organic - definitions straight from the source. Accessed August 4, 2023. https://analytics.googleblog.com/2009/08/back-to-basics-direct-referral-or.html

19.

Harbert

. What’s the difference between direct and organic sources of website traffic? Accessed July 14, 2023. https://www.swiftlocalsolutions.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-direct-and-organic-sources-of-website-traffic#:∼:text=OrganicSearch%3ATrafficforwhich,or%2Cofcourse%2CFacebook

20.

Instagram . About Instagram Insights. Accessed August 4, 2023. https://help.instagram.com/788388387972460

21.

Instagram . Insights in Commerce manager. Accessed August 4, 2023. https://help.instagram.com/825941707897287/?helpref=uf_share

22.

Corp

. About your activity dashboard. Accessed 4 August 2023. https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/using-the-tweet-activity-dashboard

23.

Langer

Castro

Chen

, et al. Recruitment and retention of underrepresented and vulnerable populations to research. Public Health Nurs 2021; 38(6): 1102–1115. DOI: 10.1111/phn.12943.

24.

Cui

Natzke

. Early childhood program participation: 2019 (NCES 2020-075REV). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2021. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020075REV

25.

Timmins

. The impact of language barriers on the health care of Latinos in the United States: a review of the literature and guidelines for practice. J Midwifery Wom Health 2002; 47(2): 80–96. DOI: 10.1016/s1526-9523(02)00218-0.

26.

Harries

Bertenthal

, et al. Community health workers in schools: a systematic review. Acad Pediatr 2023; 23(1): 14–23. DOI: 10.1016/j.acap.2022.08.015.

27.

Hartzler

Tuzzio

Hsu

, et al. Roles and functions of community health workers in primary care. Ann Fam Med 2018; 16(3): 240–245. DOI: 10.1370/afm.2208.

28.

Coulter

Ingram

McClelland

, et al. Positionality of community health workers on health intervention research teams: a scoping review. Front Public Health 2020; 8: 208. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00208.

29.

Hudnut-Beumler

Po'e

Barkin

. The use of social media for health promotion in Hispanic populations: a scoping systematic review. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2016; 2(2): e32. DOI: 10.2196/publichealth.5579.

30.

Lama

Nan

Quinn

. General and health-related social media use among adults with children in the household: findings from a national survey in the United States. Patient Educ Couns 2022; 105(3): 647–653. DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2021.07.003.

31.

Facebook . Differences between Profiles, Pages and groups on Facebook. Accessed August 4, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/help/337881706729661

32.

CGP Holdings Inc . Dynamic vs static IP address. Accessed August 4, 2023. https://whatismyipaddress.com/dynamic-static