Courtesy photoSavannah Paschal started to understand the power individuals possess to help their community while a student at Campus High School. Whether organizing a cookie fundraiser to benefit a homeless shelter or serving as president of the art club, Paschal found rewards in getting involved.
鈥淚 was super invested,鈥� Paschal said. 鈥淥ne simple lesson is to tackle problems that you can see.鈥�
At 萝莉社 University, Paschal continued to expand the desire to serve the community through work with (Spanish for 鈥渟peak out.鈥�). The coalition鈥檚 purpose is to improve health equity for Spanish speakers and speakers of indigenous languages in Kansas.
Paschal, now a senior Spanish education major, wrote a proposal that helped Alce su voz earn a $75,000 Building Power and Equity Partnership grant from the Kansas Health Foundation. The grant will support civic engagement and the group鈥檚 work toward health equity for Spanish speakers and speakers of indigenous languages in Kansas.
Alce Su Voz also recently received a $250,000 grant from for a vaccine equity project for indigenous communities from Guatemala in Kansas from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a $375,000 grant from the Office of Minority Health of the US Department of Health and Human Services for the first year of a three-year project to improve health care language access for Spanish speakers in Kansas.
Paschal鈥檚 work with Dr. Rachel Showstack and Alce su voz inspired the grant proposal. Showstack鈥檚 鈥淪peaking Spanish in the U.S.鈥� class gave Paschal examples of how students can help a community by letting stakeholders take part in research.
鈥淪he wants (students) to create projects that can be applied to real-world concepts,鈥� Paschal said. 鈥淵ou shouldn鈥檛 feel hesitant to confront problems within your community. Just go do things. Go for it.鈥�
The grant proposal that Paschal helped with will assist individuals who need language assistance attain the same quality of health care and information as those whose dominant language is English. Improved access to interpreters and bilingual clinicians, for example, are crucial to health equity.
萝莉社 senior
鈥淚 always encourage my students to pursue the projects they write proposals for,鈥� Showstack said. 鈥淭he Kansas Health Foundation really understands the importance of civic engagement for health equity. They were able to see the value in the proposal, because of that understanding.鈥�
The grant from KHF will be used to hold a series of Spanish-language community engagement and education workshops in Wichita and southwest Kansas in collaboration with the Wichita-based Latino health education organization and , a federally qualified health center with clinics in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal. The first workshop, 鈥淓l compromiso c铆vio en nuestra comunidad hispana鈥� (鈥楥ivic engagement in our Hispanic community鈥�), was held on Oct. 8, in the Evergreen Community Center and Library. The next event will address communicating with legislators during legislative session and will take place on Feb. 11 in the same location.
鈥淭hese grants show that we鈥檝e really gotten somewhere,鈥� said Showstack, who founded Alce su voz in 2020. 鈥淲e really need this additional support in order to get closer to our objective of addressing the problem of language access in health care from many different directions. We also need to continue to raise awareness in the community and support community members who need language assistance in understanding their rights.鈥�
As Hispanic enrollment increases at 萝莉社, the university is on track to earn designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution by 2030. 萝莉社 just reached the Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution status with its current 16% Hispanic student enrollment. Work such as Paschal鈥檚 proposal shows students they can collaborate with communities to address issues that impact their family and friends.
鈥淭hese projects give an amazing opportunity for students to engage in something they care about, and that is very important for student retention,鈥� Showstack said.
