title: Embracing the local: enriching scientific research, education, and outreach on the Texas-Mexico border through a participatory action research partnership.
abstract: Cameron Park, Texas, is a colonia (an isolated, unincorporated rural settlement without municipal improvements) on the Texas-Mexico border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, in Cameron County near Brownsville, Texas. Cameron Park has a population of 5,961 residents, 99.3% of whom are Hispanic. The annual median income is 16,934 US dollars, about one-half of the state median. Fifty-eight percent of families generally and 68% of those with children younger than 5 years have incomes below poverty level. Cameron Park resides geographically in a region where agriculture has been, and continues to be, a dominant industry, a fact consistent with the intensive use of pesticides and increased potential for air, water, and ground contamination. The practice of good environmental health is extremely difficult under these conditions. In 1999 the Texas A&M University Center for Housing and Urban Development's Colonias Program and the Center for Environmental and Rural Health teamed up to create an environmental health education and outreach program called the Cameron Park Project (CPP). The CPP focused on how to reduce potential environmental exposures associated with human illness by providing residents with scientifically sound information on positive health practices and how to deal with environmental hazards. In this article we discuss the research methodology used in the CPP, a methodology specifically chosen to address four challenges presented by colonias to conducting valid and reliable research.
authors.affiliation: Center for Environmental and Rural Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4455, USA. marlynn@tamu.edu
authors.forename: Marlynn L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Gloria J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Bowman
authors.forename: Kenneth S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rincones
authors.forename: Maria G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Rebollar
authors.forename: Mary L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: Josephine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saldana
authors.forename: Adelina P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Serna
authors.forename: Norma
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Viega
authors.forename: Gregoria S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Villegas
authors.forename: Maria G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Zamorano
authors.forename: Irma N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Ramos
mesh_terms: D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D004782:Environmental Health; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D012424:Rural Population; D013781:Texas