2009 Annual Report

INTERFAITH HEALTH SERVICE ANNUAL REPORT 2009
“I joined Interfaith’s Latinas in Action program because it is a group that welcomes Latinas and there are no other groups like it that I have seen. I love to dance and the exercise incorporates my culture’s appreciation for dance in to regular routines. I am able to volunteer with the program to help out with childcare in the summers and to help my mom on program planning. All of the women who take part in it work as teachers and childcare coordinators and volunteers. It is not about someone else telling us what to do, we decide what we want and then work for our goals. The program has great guest speakers, resource guides and a place for Latinas to grow and talk about family, education, work and the community.”
Mari, Latinas in Action
Participant 2003-Present

Interfaith Health Service (IHS) is a successful collaborative effort of hope and healing based in South Omaha. In 1997, IHS began as a coalition of congregations, health care providers, community agencies and college personnel seeking to promote health and make a difference in a community that is often overlooked and is at-risk for poor health outcomes.

The mission of IHS is to enhance human dignity by identifying, providing, improving and coordinating services to meet the health and wellness needs of people within the South Omaha community. Board members for IHS include representatives from Creighton University, Grace Lutheran Church, the Latinas in Action Program, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Methodist College, Metropolitan Community Church, St. Martin of Tours Church and Trinity Cathedral.

Now beginning its 6th year, Interfaith’s Latinas in Action Program continues to work closely with Latina women and their families. The success of Interfaith programming in South Omaha has received inquires on developing similar programs in western Nebraska and on the east and west coasts. Interfaith and Latinas in Action gained National recognition in being chosen to receive the Health Innovation in Prevention Award from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Latinas in Action is true a catalyst for change, education and health promotion.

Latinas in Action combines health education classes and exercise programs that are designed and led by Latina women. Meeting the needs of participants, childcare is provided on site by a staff of Latina women, both paid and voluntary. Trained Latina Health Promotoras/Health Workers are on site for each class to assist in appropriately referring participants seeking additional resources and information. Promotoras also assist in health screenings and in educational presentations. Health education topics include cardiovascular health, nutrition, diabetes, domestic violence, breast health and self-examination, family safety and other health topics. Classes also offer health screenings and baseline physiological indicators, and instruction of self-monitoring target and resting heart rate.

Women in the Latina community make many of the health and wellness decisions in their family. Women are mostly responsible for choosing the food the family eats and finding the activities the family participates in together. Interfaith recognizes this important influence within the family and has used this knowledge to design a program that creates healthy opportunities for change. Targeting at-risk Latina women and their families in this unique outreach effort has yielded successes well beyond original goals.

Latinas in Action participants come together to support one another and develop healthier lifestyles. There have been very few health and wellness programs serving the Latina community that have seen such growth and success.

Latinas in Action classes are held in neighborhood churches, community centers or neighborhood parks – trusted, close and safe spaces for Latina families. The women create a family-like atmosphere and take turns caring for younger children. Older children attend and spend time with staff on activities and team building. These positive relationships have long-lasting impact on these young minds. Children get to see their mothers and other members of their community take care of themselves and will, hopefully, shape this lesson into their own lives.

As a result of on-going health education, 100% of participants reported at least one behavioral or physiological change, including weight loss, stress reduction, decreased cholesterol, elimination of depression, regular monitoring of blood pressure and reducing salt, sugar and fat content in food preparation. Attendance records also indicate that at least 80% of participants who join continue to participate. Most importantly, women are reporting how they are using information provided in classes to teach their children in the home. Participants report that Latinas in Action has empowered them to take on new challenges with increased confidence. This indicates a change in motivation and possibly a decrease in feelings of depression, isolation and despair.

Approximately 75% of the women taking part in the program work outside the home, 85% have children and 75% are enrolled in English classes, thus indicating that the women served by the program are highly motivated and engaged. Participants in the program state that the program helps them combat depression, isolation and increases self-esteem. Participants are now starting to give back to the community through food donations and volunteering at other non-profit agencies.

IHS is well known within the South Omaha community as an outstanding collaborating organization with a proven ability to build highly successful programs by responding to community needs. Programming ideas originate with participants themselves and this is the cornerstone of Interfaith‘s tremendous success. Creighton University is a natural partner with IHS and all Latinas in Action sites are approved community health rotation sites for nursing students. Interfaith also works directly with faculty members and graduate students from New York’s Columbia University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Nebraska at Omaha where Interfaith is an approved Master‘s in Public Health placement site, and the College of Saint Mary’s on projects involving health disparity issues in minority populations. Methodist College of Nursing also partners with IHS, providing both faculty and student support for programs.

Interfaith continued developing a partnership with Arts for All, a community-based effort offering musical, artistic and creative classes to minority families in its new location in South Omaha. This year, Interfaith was pleased to develop a new partnership with Pixan, a group dedicated to educational outreach for Guatemalan immigrants in South Omaha. As a collaborating partner with Pixan, Interfaith offers health education to over 50 families enrolled in literacy and GED programs each month. Latinas in Action was asked to serve as a mentoring organization in helping the newly organized Guatemalan community in South Omaha develop additional literacy and health education programs for Latinas and Guatemalans.

Latinas in Action was approached by the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) in North Omaha and asked to replicate its Latinas in Action Zumba Program for teenage high school students. Latinas in Action’s staff taught a semester long intensive Zumba program to over 40 African American students on the YEP academic campus site.

Latinas in Action staff was also invited to offer Zumba camps for children ages 8-12 during the summer months. The camps were filled to capacity and will continue next year.

Latinas in Action participants are committed to volunteering within the program and donate financially even though most have limited financial means. In fact, participant contributions to the program doubled this year, in spite of the economic downturn faced thought the United States. Participants are also committed to giving back within the community by donating time and expertise to local schools and community based programs. Latinas in Action participants also organize regular donations of food, baby clothing and toys for families who have lost their primary care giver due to accident or injury.
Participants also began a micro-business this year, thanks to a donation of over a dozen designer wedding dresses from Wells Fargo Bank. Members of Latinas in Action are responsible for sewing and alterations on dresses and have begun selling the dresses through partnerships with consignment shops in South Omaha. Proceeds from the micro-business will be used to for additional sewing materials and Latinas in Action classes.

Interfaith is grateful for the financial support of different organizations and foundations. Without this support, our work would not be possible. The William and Ruth Scott Family Foundation was the first significant Foundational support Interfaith received and the Foundation continues to provide on-going support for programming and expansion. IHS was honored to receive grant support from Thrivent for Lutherans for programming focusing on Latina women and families. The Nebraska Office of Minority Health also support Interfaith through a minority health grant. Interfaith also received a health education grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation this year. Grace Lutheran Church continues to donate office space for Latinas in Action Promotoras and staff and programming space for educational classes. Rev. Dr. Damon Laaker, President of Interfaith’s Board of Directors, continues to donate his time and skills in over-seeing IHS staff.

Interfaith looks forward to continued success and programming excellence while working side by side with our participants, staff, Board members and numerous partnering organizations in the year ahead.

Virginia McGill, MA
Interfaith Health Service

Spotlight on Latinas in Action

Interfaith Health Service: Spotlight on Latinas in Action

This month marks the beginning of a semi-regular feature that will be posted on Interfaith’s website, interfaithhealth.org. Gema and I plan to try and interview a Latinas in Action participant each month. One of our childcare directors, instructors, youth club (Amigos in Action) participants or one of our regular Zumba and educational participants will be featured. We will not publish every interview in the congregational newsletters, but wanted to let folks know where to find additional interviews in the future.
To start things off, I asked Vanessa, one of our Amigos in Action youth group members to be our first featured guest. Vanessa and her mother and 2 brothers have been attending Latinas in Action faithfully since our program began. It is always a treat to see Vanessa and her family and hear about their week. I have had the privilege of working fairly closely with Vanessa, in particular, over the years. She may not remember this, but when we first met, she was shy and quiet but always ready with a beautiful smile. These days, Vanessa is one of our regular participants and she has grown in confidence and maturity. She would not be described as shy by any of her peers. She is extremely intelligent, quick-witted, caring and gracious, and a loving older sister.

Here are some highlights of my IHS conversation with Vanessa:
Age: 12
School: Norris
Something about me not everyone knows about me:
“I have a dog. I’ve had Bella since she was a puppy. She is a year and a half old but she is NOT named after the lead character in those books everyone at school is reading.” (Twilight series)
I like:
“Sleeping, eating, talking to my friends, soccer, saxophone, vanilla ice cream, my favorite school subject is math.”
In the future, I want to:
“Be a pastry chef or an artist.”

God has blessed me:
“With my family and my life.”

A favorite memory of the past year:
“The day before Thanksgiving last year, my mom and I got up really early, around 6 in the morning. We went to No Frills in South Omaha and bought all the spices and ingredients for making a the turkey my dad got from his work. It was fun because it was just me and my mom cooking. We were surprised at how well the turkey turned out. We went over to my grandmother’s house to celebrate the day and let’s just put it this way—there were no leftovers from our turkey! Everyone else liked it as much as we did!”

Please look for additional features on the website. And please continue to lift up our ministry and our wonderful participants like Vanessa in your prayers.

Virginia McGill, Interfaith Health Service

Interfaith Health Service now offering Youth Art Program

In February, Interfaith began a Pilot Art Program, Artists in Action, for the children of Latinas In Action participants. The Artists in Action project is funded by Thrivent for Lutherans and Arts for All and utilizes the talents of Maria Palma, a certified art instructor with the Omaha Public School System. Maria’s work as an artist is impressive. Her mediums include murals, oil paintings, watercolors, and ceramics. She also is certified as a dual language instructor within OPS.

Since Maria’s talents are so artistically diverse, I held several focus groups with our participants and their children to determine the type of art participants wanted incorporate into our pilot program. Requests centered on offering an opportunity to make crafts, paint, and make ceramics. Thus far, Maria’s classes have been designed to focus on each of these topics for several weeks. The remaining structure of the program will be reviewed and adjusted to accommodate the broad age range of youth that attend class each week. Classes have averaged 15 students, ranging in age from 5 to 16 years old.

So much hinges on any pilot program, it seems. Before Interfaith moves forward with any program, we attempt to “set ourselves up for success” in finding the right class to offer, the right teacher, and introducing something that will meet the needs of our participants. The foundation developed in a pilot program can influence the word of mouth about the program, enthusiasm for continuing it, program demand, grant funder review and satisfaction, and participant attendance. Maria has proved to be an outstanding leader who brings many gifts to Interfaith in helping us organize this type of program.

It has been so exciting to see our youth responsive and excited in making art and designing their very own creations! It is my goal to have a simple exhibit of all of their artwork set up for display at a few different sites in Omaha. In the meantime, please feel free to check out a couple of pictures of the students and their completed work at our website: “http://www.interfaithhealth.org”

Many thanks for your prayers and support as we move forward with Artists in Action.

Virginia McGill, Interfaith

Interfaith Health Service’s Amigos In Action

Interfaith Health Service’s Amigos In Action members, comprised of the children of our Latinas in Action Participants, are thrilled to take part in a new Wednesday evening art class through Arts for All.

Stations of Hope

Interfaith Health is pleased to present a new opportunity for developing health and hope across the community. You are invited to the first of what plans to be many presentations of “Stations of Hope.” Attached you will find a flier that describes the first presentation.

Interfaith Health invites you to post it, share it with your friends and colleagues, pass it along to other interested agencies that might like to hear about this special way hope and health is being built in Omaha.
“Stations of Hope” Tuesday, March 24, 7 pm, St. Martin of Tours Church, 24th & J Streets.

Hope to see you there.
flyer-for-stations-of-hope

New Partnerships Formed Via Interfaith Health Service

This month, Interfaith began a new “Healthy Lifestyles” program and partnership with Omaha’s Youth Empowerment Program (YEP), Arts for All and the Omaha Public Schools. Working with the Omaha Public School (OPS) System, the Youth Empowerment Program offers quality after-school programs to area youth from grades 4 through 12, while Arts for All seeks to bring affordable arts education through numerous programs throughout Omaha.

Because of Interfaith’s track record of collaboration and building programs that are recognized on the National level in meeting community needs, we were approached by YEP and Arts for All to consider offering a class to OPS youth. Out of twenty or so options, the OPS students voted on the four favorite classes they would like to see offered this semester. Based on budget, YEP’s board of directors narrowed those selections to two classes, and approved one class for Cartooning and Drawing and one for Zumba, a dance and physical activity movement class.

Gema, our Interfaith Health Promotora/Educator, is a Zumba certified instructor and expressed a genuine willingness to offer a first-ever Zumba class to a totally new age group. Gema has worked for three years with our Latinas in Action adults and she embraced the idea of helping Interfaith reach out to area youth. The curriculum for Gema’s class focuses on teaching the basics of Zumba, which combines elements of meringue, salsa and other dances, while bringing about a high level of physical activity, fun and healthy lifestyle choices for youth.

Over 25 students attended Gema’s first Zumba class. They received an overview of Zumba and began working with Gema immediately on getting active and learning different dance routines. The Director of the YEP Program, Miriam, shared that she was very impressed with Gema’s ability to work with the students and maintain the interest of so many different students. Judy, the Executive Director of Arts for All, also shared that the students have expressed many positive sentiments about Gema’s teaching style.

Interfaith has met so many new leaders, students and educators as a result of this Healthy Lifestyles partnership. We have also met many other outstanding staff and participants from other organizations that wish to work along side us to promote hope and healing in our community (these projects will be outlined in the future). We are blessed to be part of such a collaborative ministry and hope that with God’s blessing and your prayers, our partnerships continue to grow and thrive in the months ahead.

Virginia McGill, MA, Interfaith

Interfaith Health Service, Kindness in the Community

“Every time you opt in to kindness
Make one connection used to divide us
It Echoes
All over the world” — Echoes, Dar Williams

I have long been a fan of singer/songwriter/community organizer Dar Williams. One of her new songs, Echoes, has not been far from my CD player these days. The lyrics listed above have especially resonated with me as I attend various meetings in the community to seek ideas and partnerships for our Latinas in Action program during this time of transition and new growth.

While Interfaith Health Service has the mission of providing hope and healing in Omaha, I believe a large part of that mission involves about making connections. Connections with our neighbors, connections with our brothers and sisters, connections on the human and heart levels within our churches, local agencies and programs.

The simple act of opting in to kindness, rather than focusing on what divides us is a radical act. Seemingly simple, yet requiring commitment and awareness.

The echoes I have personally wittnessed within Interfaith’s ministry these past months include the following:

Interfaith participants working together to raise money for a friend whose son died and who did not have money for a funeral.

Our Latinas in Action women and their families coming together at Grace Lutheran Church for a lovely Christmas celebration.

Teenage particpants working hard with each other on team building and sharing activities.

Volunteers, teachers and physicians in the community asking how they can become more involved with Interfaith’s work.

Funders exploring possibilities of partnership and connection with Interfaith.

David, one of our youngest teen participants, saying that his Friday nights with Interfaith’s Super Kids Club are the best part of his weekend.

This New Year, I pray that together we may continue to echo the kindness that Interfaith programs seek to facilitate in the community.

Virginia McGill, Interfaith

Interfaith Health Recognized Nationally

The US Department of Health and Human Services recognized Interfaith Health’s Latinas en Accion program in November of 2007.

Check out the news release here.
HHS News Release

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