Meeting Summary

Cervical Cancer Project Team

July 29, 2008

10:00-12:00, Snelling Office Park

Attendance: 

Marva Bohen, Katie Moyer, Liz Moe, Nadifa Osman, Sheila Pelzel, Sara Rohde, Betty Sanders, Abdullahi Sheikh, Niccu Tafarrodi, Marie Tran, Xang Vang, Dai Vu, Janet Smith-Yee.

Recorded by:  Sara Rohde

1.       Welcome/Introductions.  

2.       GSK Funds:  This funding is geared toward a different audience, so the topic is closed. 

3.       Hearing from meeting guests : This discussion focused on hearing from and working with communities that contain underserved women.

a.       Community Input – projects should be identified by members of the community.  Leaders from various communities need to be involved.  The big picture for the pap team is reducing cervical cancer incidence and mortality.  Project should address these but be driven by members/leaders of targeted communities.

b.       Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association (HAMAA). This organization currently offers no health programming other than a school nurse.  With funding, HAMAA could work with Lao Family Services and Hmong American Partnership to execute activities that promote cervical cancer screening among the Hmong women served by these agencies.  Xang Vang explained that many individuals HAMAA serves need help understanding and accessing preventive screening and care of all types.  HAMAA could conduct outreach and communicate health messages or promote education/screening events through cultural leaders, elders, and radio. 

c.       African Women’s Development Organization (AWDO).  According to Nadifa Osman, ED of AWDO, there are many issues causing health disparities including lack of funding and lack of interest in underserved communities by key decision makers.    Projects need to use the resources available (CHWs), directly reach women in the community, use local media, and offer a selection of interventions – not just one intervention for a community.  

d.       Other topics – A few items that were small parts of this discussion were interpretation and video distribution.  There was some discussion about challenges with using interpreters.  Free videos can be a good way to reach non-readers, but sometimes they are given out without enough explanation.

4.       Moving forward -

a.       Coalitions: Coalitions could be formed such as the HAMAA/Lao Family Services/Hmong American Partnership collaboration mentioned above.  This might increase the number of people reached.  Coalitions could work with the pap team to create a very targeted approach to increasing awareness and screening.

b.       Needs Assessment: A needs assessment should be done to find out what is available already, and where there are holes in service or in how women are represented at the table.

c.       Additional resources: Elders groups; housing sites with large populations of a specific ethnic group such as Skyline Tower in St. Paul or Seward Towers in Minneapolis; St. Cate’s Nursing Students; outreach events at schools on a night or day when parents are present; Somali Doctors Association; networking and interviewing community leaders to identify potential team members.

5.       Next Meeting:  August 26, 2008, 10:00 to 12:00.  Snelling Office Park

      Agenda Items:

      Continue the discussion of reaching out to community leaders and recruiting pap team members from those communities.

      Discuss possibilities for upcoming projects.

      Set priorities such as choosing one specific community/set of agencies to start with.