Cambio Center News - February 2009

• Cambio Center is Awarded Grant by Missouri Foundation for Health
  Conceived and led by Cambio Center fellow Stephen Jeanetta, the $222,371, 2-year grant supports "Promotoras de Salud" (Community Health Workers), a program which provides translators to help non-English speaking residents better navigate the health care system.  This health literacy program will serve as the bridge between the providers of health care services and the targeted Latino community. The University of Missouri Cambio Center will collaborate with Columbia’s Centro Latino to recruit for, implement, and evaluate a Promotoras de Salud program. Promotoras will work at Centro Latino and serve as the connectors between health care consumers and health care providers to promote health literacy and healthy behavior among groups that have traditionally lacked access to adequate health care and information. (Project Summary)
   
• New Cambio Center Fellow: Elver Pardo
  We welcome new fellow Elver Pardo, 4-H Youth Specialist, MU Extension, who is working on Outreach Latino/Hispanic Children, Youth and Families at the Missouri 4-H Center for Youth Development. His main interests related to the Cambio Center mission are:
  • To develop and implement programs and seek opportunities for Hispanic/Latino populations in Missouri.
  • To provide academic leadership and expertise for Hispanic/Latino populations in Missouri.
  • To provide leadership for faculty, staff, volunteers, youth and stakeholders in reaching Hispanic/Latino children, youth and families.
  Elver also supports the Cambio de Colores conference.  He is natively fluent in Spanish.  He has been with Extension since 2002, and now is based at the Columbia campus.
   
• Journal Article from Cambio Center project – Asset Accumulation Strategies in 3 New Settlements Communities
  “The Impact of Networks and the Context of Reception on Asset Accumulation Strategies of Latino Newcomers in New Settlement Communities of the Midwest”
  by Corinne Valdivia, Pedro Dozi, Stephen Jeanetta, Lisa Y. Flores, Domingo Martínez, Anne Dannerbeck
  American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 90 Issue 5 , December 2008  (pp. 1319-1325)
  This article was presented in a principal paper session at the 2008 AAEA annual meeting Orlando, FL. This project is supported by National Research Initiative Grant No. 2006-35401-17429 from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Rural Development Program.
  Available Online (MU has online access): Abstract  |  References | Full Text:   HTML,   PDF (Size: 82K)
   
• Christiane Quinn, Cambio Center Office Coordinator, received a Staff Development Award to attend the program “Experimental Learning Program in Mexican Culture, Family Values, Agriculture and Migration” in Mexico, February 7-18, 2009, funded by  MU’s Staff Advisory Council. Congratulations, Christiane!
   
• Cambio de Colores Conference: The Cambio de Colores (Change of Colores) 2009 conference, “Latinos in the Heartland,” the most important outreach activity of the Cambio Center, will take place in St. Louis (Millennium Center, UMSL), May 18-20, 2009. The conference Planning Committee is finishing the program.  Please visit www.cambiodecolores.org for the latest information.

Resources and Opportunities

• Call for Papers and Panels
  The Julián Samora Research Institute, based at Michigan State University, will hold a special 20th Anniversary Celebration Conference: Latino/a Communities in the Midwest, Nov. 5-7, 2009, at  East Lansing, Michigan. The institute is soliciting submissions by researchers and practitioners on a broad range of topics focusing on Latino/as communities in the Midwest. For more information, visit the Conference website.
   
• Web-based English Learning Free Resource
  U.S.A. Learns was originally conceived by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL).  Core funding for U.S.A. Learns was provided by ED.  Additional funding for U.S.A. Learns was made available by the California Department of Education. 
   
• Data Matters
  • The Migration Policy Institute, along with the Population Reference Bureau, released a new pocket guide that shows the public how to find and use some of the most accurate and up-to-date immigration-related data compiled by government and non-governmental sources.  The guide, Immigration: Data Matters, is available online.
  • Pew Hispanic Center Releases 2007 National Survey of Latinos Dataset: It is available for download in SPSS format. People can request the dataset and instructions here.
     
• Microenterprise Outreach
  FIELD: A Center that has multiple studies and outreach materials on microenterprise and entrepreneurship. Quote: “FIELD's mission is to identify, develop and disseminate best practices in the microenterprise field, and to educate funders, policy makers and others about microenterprise as an anti-poverty strategy.”  (http://fieldus.org/)

Publications of Interest

• Nebraska’s Immigrant Population: Economic and Fiscal Impacts, by Christopher S. Decker, with assistance from Jerry Deichert and Lourdes Gouveia, October, 2008, Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS), University of Nebraska at Omaha  (PDF, 2 Mb, 45 pp).
   
• Estimating the Contribution of Immigrant Business Owners to the U.S. Economy By Robert W. Fairlie, published by the U.S. Government Small Business Administration (SBA)
  Research Summary (PDF) Full report (PDF)

Pew Hispanic Center Reports:

• Unemployment Rises Sharply Among Latino Immigrants in 2008, by Rakesh Kochhar (February, 2009).
• Hispanics and the Economic Downturn: Housing Woes and Remittance Cuts, by Mark Hugo Lopez, Gretchen Livingston, Rakesh Kochhar (January, 2009).
• Latinos Account for Half of U.S. Population Growth Since 2000 , analyzes changes in Latino growth and settlement patterns over the past three decades. The report includes a series of interactive maps and data bases that provide demographic information about the Latino population in each of the nation's 50 states and 3,141 counties.