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Lessons Learned: Community Engagement in Emergencies in Puerto Rico
- Irene Lafarga Previdi, Carmen M. Vélez Vega, Ana C. Guzzi Vasques, Emma Fernández Repollet, Héctor R. Torres Zayas, Akram Alshawabkeh, José F. Cordero
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- Journal:
- Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness / Volume 17 / 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 27 March 2023, e367
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Objective:
To describe the importance of community engagement from research projects and research centers in times of disasters or emergencies, using the case of Puerto Rico in recent years (2017 - 2022) as an example.
Methods:First, research participants and stakeholders from local community and health organizations were contacted via email and phone calls after each emergency to assess their immediate needs. Second, needs were classified in categories (materials, educational resources, service referrals, and collaborations). Finally, delivery of support was coordinated in a timely manner whether in person or online.
Results:Activities were conducted such as handing out materials, providing educational resources, contacting participants, and stakeholders, as well as coordinating collaboration with community and organizations.
Conclusion:Several lessons were learned from our experiences related to Puerto Rico’s recent emergencies as well as some relevant recommendations for future disasters. The efforts presented illustrate the importance of community engagement from academic institutions in disasters. Research centers and research projects, particularly those with community engagement components, should consider providing support in the preparedness phase as well as the recovery phase if necessary. Community engagement in emergencies is crucial to recovery efforts as well as fostering empowerment and making an impact on individual and societal levels.
2231 Research partnership, community commitment, and the people-to-people for Puerto Rico (#p2p4PUR) Movement: Researchers and citizens in solidarity
- Jose G. Perez-Ramos, Hector T. Zayas, Nancy R. Cardona Cordero, Dulce M. Del Rio Pineda, Colleen Murphy, Carmen M. Velez Vega, Timothy De Ver Dye
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 2 / Issue S1 / June 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 November 2018, p. 74
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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Island communities face greater environmental risks creating challenges in their populations. A community and participatory qualitative research method aiming to understand community perspectives regarding the ecology and environmental risks of the island of Culebra was performed to develop a community-centered Information and Communications Technology (ICT) intervention (an app). The island of Culebra, a municipality from the archipelago of Puerto Rico is located 17 miles from the eastern coast of Puerto Rico’s main island. This ICT—termed mZAP (Zonas, Acción & Protección)—is part of a Translational Biomedical doctoral degree dissertation housed at the University of Rochester’s Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Informatics Core funded by an NIH Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA). In September 2017, the island of Culebra faced 2 major category hurricanes 2 weeks apart. Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria devastated homes, schools, health clinics, and local businesses, disrupting an already-fragile ecological balance on the island. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: These 2 storms catastrophically affected the archipelago of Puerto Rico. Culebra’s geographically isolated location, along with the inefficient response from authorities, exacerbated the stressors caused by these natural disasters, increasing the gap of social determinants of health, including the lack of potable water. Leveraging a community engagement partnership established before the hurricanes by the mZAP participatory research, which naturally halted once the hurricanes hit a new humanitarian objective formed to deliver aid. Along with another NIH funded RCMI Translational Research Network, or RTRN institution (University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus) students and faculty, The Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats Program (PROTECT) an NIEHS Funded Grant, and the National Guard, a “people to people” approach was established to ascertain needs and an opportunity to meet those needs. A people-to-people approach brings humanitarian needs, identified directly by the community to the people who need it most; without intermediaries and bureaucratic delays that typically occur during catastrophes. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The consumption of potable water in plastic bottles and subsequent accumulation of plastic material has proven to be collateral damage of a vulnerable water distribution system creating another environmental hazard on the island of Culebra. Therefore, this humanitarian partnership, worked to delivered community and family sized water filters, providing a safe environmental alternative to drinkable water for the island. The success of this approach, People to People for Puerto Rico (#p2p4PUR), demonstrated the power of genuine community engagement—arising from a previous clinical research partnership—and true established commitment with members of the community. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Research partnerships can (and should, when needed) lead to humanitarian partnerships that extend beyond research objectives. Research may subsequently be adapted based on new realities associated with natural disasters and the altered nature of existing partnerships, allowing for a rapid response to communities need. Further, #p2p4PUR was not only able to channel a partnership humanitarian response but also created an opportunity to reflect on how the commitment between members of society and academia (researchers) can create beneficial bilateral relationships, always putting the community needs first. The resulting shared experience elevates community interest and engagement with researchers, and helps researchers see communities as true partners, rather than—simply—research subjects.
2502: mZAP (Zonas, Accion y Proteccion): Empowering communities with mobile strategies for mosquito-borne disease control in tropical environments
- Jose G. Perez-Ramos, Scott McIntosh, Carmen M. Velez Vega, Emily S. Barrett, Timothy De Ver Dye
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 1 / Issue S1 / September 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 May 2018, p. 41
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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Our objectives with this project are to engage communities through technology creating a communication channel with affected communities and stakeholders about mosquito-borne illness, vector control and environmental health risk. Furthermore, engaging communities to electronically map ecological risks that impact mosquito-borne illness with the goal of creating a mobile application that will work as an ecological surveillance against mosquito proliferation and potential mosquito population reduction, and finally pilot test and evaluate potential benefits in communities where the application was used. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We propose a methodology to perform formative community work that will underscore a distributed, democratized ecological surveillance through an integration of multidimensional health behavior theories that address the challenges of ZIKV in Culebra, a marginalized island community off the coast of the main island of Puerto Rico. Using participatory design, we will develop, test, and evaluate users’ experiences towards mobile applications using qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (survey) methodologies. A mobile application with the capacity of mapping, use of social-media, crowdsourcing, and photo-voice in a dynamic and simple way will allow community members to alert “hot-zone” locations to the stakeholders interested in creating ecological action in their community. This multidimensional concept integrates explanatory and prospective approaches and will generate systematic short-term solutions for mosquito control and long-term solutions providing the necessary tools for community empowerment. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Our proposed design will facilitate better understanding of the interactions between community members and socio-environmental determinants of mosquito-borne diseases. Furthermore, our proposed project will not only facilitate communication among members of a community, but also it will provide a platform for engagement and empowerment, establishing a change in the preventive paradigm of how communities face the negative impacts of micro-ecologies that surround them. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our proposed community collaboratory mHealth tool mZAP! (Zonas, Accion y Proteccion) will address the lack of community participation efforts against mosquito-borne diseases contributed simultaneously by the disengagement and disempowerment of community members. mZAP! will serve as an innovative tool to engage marginalized and communities made vulnerable in Puerto Rico. This approach should be successful as Puerto Rico is one of the most digitally connected countries in Latin America, with high mobile phone usage rates and social media use. Using mZAP!, communities will report and map breeding sites, use social media and crowd sensing, targeting against powerful tools against mosquito ecologies in their own environments. This application could result in an effective way to change the paradigms for public health approaches to use Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) to empower communities.