The Hispanic Health Council (HHC), was established in 1978 in response to the health

Health

Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...

 care crisis

Crisis

A crisis is any event that is, or expected to lead to, an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community or whole society...

 in the Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 community. HHC is a nationally recognized community-based research

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

, service, training

Training

The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of...

, and advocacy organization, is committed to developing and providing a comprehensive approach to improving the health and social well-being of Latinos and other low income inner city population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

.

History

The Hispanic Health Council, which is based in Hartford, CT, has a long year track record of successfully translating its research findings into prevention, intervention, and community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 programs. Since the founding of the HHC in 1978, the organization has grown to be the largest Hispanic social service organization in the state of Connecticut, with special expertise in maternal and child health, family nutrition

Nutrition

Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....

, risk reduction, youth development, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS.

Goal

The central mission of the Hispanic Health Council is to use research to enhance the effectiveness of community intervention and education programs and to use long term involvement in the community to develop health research programs. The organization’s efforts to achieve these goals are characterized by:

• The use of state-of-the art research methodology in identifying, assessing, tracking, and responding to emergent and enduring public health problems;
• A commitment to community participation and an activist/involved approach to scholarship; * building broad-based community collaborators and consumer participation in prevention/intervention research;
• Technology transfer and the creation of research capacity at the grassroots level;
• A strong track record of both professional publication and the community dissemination of research findings through conferences, workshops, presentations, health fairs, fact sheets, newsletters, and related media;
• A deep concern with the development of culturally and socially competent prevention/intervention models;
• Interdisciplinary collaboration; and
• Health policy and advocacy. The Hispanic Health Council is organized in five Centers of Excellence: Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, Youth and Family Health and Development, Risk Reduction, and Research.