UASW Cervical Cancer Public Education
Investigator: Wen-Jan Tuan, MS, OCA

In Spring 2006, the United Asian Services of Wisconsin, Inc. (UASW), in partnership with the CDH, initiated a small cervical cancer awareness project for Hmong women living in Dane County, Wisconsin. The project was funded by a Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services’ minority health mini-grant program.

The project entailed developing and distributing an ethnic-specific brochure to Hmong immigrants and other community organizations. Additionally, key community leaders, health professionals, and educators participated in two workshops during which community perspectives about cervical cancer and cervical cancer screenings were explored.

A report on findings from this community-academic partnership is currently under development.

Milwaukee Birthing Project
Investigator: Gloria Johnson-Powell, MD

The Milwaukee Birthing Project is a three-year program that aims to improve birth outcomes for African-American and Latina women throughout the Milwaukee area. The project is funded by a Community-Academic Partnership Implementation Grant from the Wisconsin Partnership Fund for a Healthy Future, with Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell as principal investigator.

The project will match 150 pregnant women of color with 150 volunteer “sister-friends” over a three-year period. Sister-friends provide social support and advice on prenatal care, diet, and baby care throughout the pregnancy and for one year after the birth of the child. These steps help to reduce stress levels and improve health outcomes for both mother and child.

As of August 2006, 57 matches have been made so far between pregnant women and volunteer sister-friends.

  Milwaukee Birthing Project website
  Read an article on the Milwaukee Birthing Project

Walking Forward Project
Investigator: Daniel Petereit, MD, John T. Vucurevich Cancer Care Institute, Rapid City Regional Hospital, South Dakota

The Walking Forward Project is an NIH-funded cancer screening and patient navigation research project. It represents a scientific collaborative program between the Rapid City Regional Hospital, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Mayo Clinic, and partnerships with Native American communities in western South Dakota.

The goal of the Walking Forward project is to discover and manage the barriers to cancer screening and treatment among rural (reservation) and urban Native Americans in South Dakota. Toward this goal, the project team is collecting survey data on three reservations and one urban Indian community on Native Americans’ experiences with and knowledge (whether medical or cultural) of cancer, its etiology and treatment options, and the identification of potential barriers to care.

CDH medical anthropologists Shannon Sparks, PhD, and Lisa Tiger, PhD(c) are assisting with an analysis of the qualitative survey data collected as part of the community survey, and data collected in the process of patient navigation.