A $70,000 grant will go toward a program aimed at preventing diabetes in the city's growing Latino community.
The three-year grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts will be used for a program called Listen and Learn, a collaborative effort with Mount Auburn Hospital and the Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center as well as Power Program and Waltham Alliance to Create Housing.
Mary Johnson, community health director for Mount Auburn, said one of the first goals is to better understand beliefs and perceptions from both health care professionals and those in the community about risk and prevention for Type 2 and gestational diabetes, which is found for the first time when a woman is pregnant.
The Listen and Learn program will include a series of focus groups and surveys to determine what causes the high incidence of diabetes in the city's Latino population and what can be done for prevention.
"We really want the clinician and community voice to be heard in the planning process," she said.
Waltham was selected as the location for the initiative because it has been become home to more Latino immigrants than any other city in the state over the past two decades, according to a press release from the Community Health Center.
Francisca Guevara, the Joseph M. Smith's Community Services manager, said in a press release that the health center is well-positioned to conduct the surveys that will provide the essential information for the project.
"We were chosen to participate because of our respected and trusted relationship with the Waltham Latino community, both through providing health care to our many Latino patients and through all the health screenings we conduct for Latino users of other social service organizations in Waltham," Guevara said.
Richard Conn can be reached at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
