Progress in the Field

As we continue our work in the community, attending events throughout Cook County, making presentations, talking to mothers and fathers interested in participating in the Study, we have been learning a great deal about what people’s concerns are in terms of the health of their community and what they want for their children.

Some parents have told us they are worried about living in proximity to a power plant and how that might affect their children’s health. One dad wanted to know if his son might have to stay behind in school like he did when he grew up. A community leader is concerned about lead poisoning as his community is mostly made up of older homes. An elected official talked about households using well water and not knowing how often they check the water quality. Others have mentioned the lack of resources in their community including access to parks and safe places for children to play.

Our VideoVoice project is a chance for people to go “on the record” expressing those concerns and giving feedback to the Study. Our neighborhood ambassadors have been asking local parents, community leaders, healthcare providers and others to participate in interviews, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Over the next several weeks, we will be producing a number of community videos which reflect the attitudes of people in our community about the National Children's Study. We will be sharing those videos through here and other means. In the meantime, two of our neighborhood ambassadors share their experiences working to promote the Study in the Latino community:

What have you learned from your first interviews?

"Working with people, doing the interviews has been very good because I have come to find out, in the first case, that the same experiences people have had are the same most of us have had. We are not really as different as we may seem, and our concerns remain mostly the same. We all want the well-being of our children; we want the well-being of our community and ourselves."

How do you think people in your community will respond to the NCS?

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