Field Placement:  California Family Health Council (CFHC)
Location: Los Angeles,CA
Preceptor: Donna Bell Sanders
Student Name: Rose Liu
Year: 2008

California Family Health Council (CFHC or “the Council” is a non-profit organization located in Los Angeles, Campbell and Berkeley. CFHC was established by a merger in 1997 between the Los Angeles Regional Family Planning Council (LARFPC) and the California Family Planning Council (CFPC). The mission of the Council aims to improve the health of Californians by increasing access to comprehensive family planning and reproductive services. CFHC also promotes the birth of healthy children, prevention of pregnancy and treatment of diseases

Providing materials that are linguistic and culturally competent is a considerable issue in our reproductive clinics today. CFHC supports 69 delegate agencies with a total of over 300 clinic sites for our state’s Title X program. In a diverse state such as California, these clinics serve over 800,000 clients of all ethnic backgrounds. In order for our delegates to ensure funding, they must provide services in a culturally sensitive manner, in the appropriate language as well as make available health education materials that reflect these standards.  Many Title X agencies have expressed a need to have client education materials which are appropriate for their population and linguistically appropriate.

The Information and Education Division has taken initiative and developed the Title X Information and Education Advisory Committee on Linguistic and Cultural Competency (I & E Committee). Beginning Fall of 2007, the I & E Committee was created as an advisory panel of providers from Title X agencies and staff members. Meeting quarterly, their responsibilities include approving materials that are appropriate for client populations. Additionally, the I & E Committee have also agreed to provide technical assistance to some agencies requesting evaluation of their materials. The goal of this committee is to continuously evaluate and recommend health education materials as “Title X Approved.”

During my fieldwork with Donna Bell Sanders in the Information & Education Division of CFHC, my main responsibility was to evaluate and recommend reproductive health education materials to the I&E Committee. In the Summer of 2008, I was trained in CFHC procedures for evaluating health education materials. Evaluations included assessing reading level and cultural appropriateness. A readability formula and CFHC checklist was also used to determine the quality.

I attended a day long training that consisted of training on GENIE, Health Literacy and Cultural and Linguistic Competency of materials. I was responsible for evaluating a total of 100 materials, some from delegate agencies and others related to sexual coercion, parental involvement and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). I catalogued all pieces given to CFHC by delegate agencies in an Excel Spreadsheet.  Evaluated pieces appropriate under CFHC’s criteria would then be sent to the I & E Committee to review. On the occasion which I come across suitable materials, I have the opportunity to write a blog recommending the piece on our website. Upon review of client materials, I entered it into the GENIE database and maintained a log of the 100 pieces I’ve evaluated.

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