Soros Advocacy Fellowship for Physicians Guidelines | Grantee List | Case Studies
Galveston, TX
2004
Fellowship Partnering Organization: Proyecto Digna, Inc.
Home Institution: University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Cameron Park is an impoverished Hispanic community, or colonia, on the outskirts of Brownsville on the southernmost tip of Texas. According to the 2000 U.S. census, it is the poorest community of its size in the nation. In partnership with Proyecto Digna, Inc., an advocacy organization based in Cameron Park, Dr. Smith sought to mobilize the community through an advocacy program that included the following elements: identifying salient health-care needs, identifying public health programs and policies relevant to these needs, identifying specific barriers to access, communicating to the public (and the public’s representatives) factors impeding healthcare access, and implementing proposals to remove barriers and maximize health-care resources for the community (on the understanding that what is germane to Cameron Park applies to similar underserved communities across the state and nation).
Fellowship Successes
A network of small communities geographically distributed throughout Cameron Park has been mobilized as focus groups, and leaders from the community have been trained as group leaders.
