MODULE:1:1 VALUES

Latino Best Start | Facilitator Guide

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This curriculum has been developed through the generous funding

provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

All rights reserved ©.

Please do not duplicate this manual without the written permission

of W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSModule 1, Part 1: Values 9

Module 1, Part 2: A Healthy Start, A Healthy Life 15

Module 2: Leadership 19

Module 3: Advocacy 27

Module 4: Making Things Happen 35

Module 5, Part 1: Developing a Plan 39

Module 5, Part 2: Developing a Plan 45

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INTRODUCTIONLatino Best Start is a health leadership curriculum created to help Latino parents, families,

and communities raise healthy children who will grow into healthy adults. It begins with the

premise that exclusive breastfeeding for the first months of a child’s life is the healthiest start

for children. Developed with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this curriculum builds

on the values and health practices shared with us by Latino parents and families across the

United States through focus groups and surveys. The curriculum honors the diversity of

backgrounds within the Latino community, including a family’s traditions, country of origin,

and length of time in the U.S.

Rather than focusing solely on changing health behaviors, this curriculum begins with

the idea that values drive all of our decisions, including the way we eat and take care of

our physical and mental health. It also returns to the belief that everyone can be a leader

because there is a leader inside each one of us. By teaching participants how to discover

and develop leadership skills, they not only change themselves and their families, but their

communities too! Our new leaders will have the information and skills necessary to help

prevent obesity and diabetes in their communities by sharing the fundamentals of exclusive

breastfeeding, healthy eating and physical activity. This curriculum takes a personal

approach of inspiring health and wellness. It is intended to create champions in local

neighborhoods to promote the idea that a healthy life starts with breastfeeding but doesn’t

end there.

This culturally relevant curriculum is developed by and for the Latino community. The

Facilitator’s Guide is written in a conversational tone to increase the ease of delivery.

Participatory in nature, it also includes many stories to make it practical and relevant. And, the

content is flexible to allow facilitators to add their own examples and stories. The curriculum

never assumes participants can’t understand concepts. Rather, it helps participants think

through challenging ideas. It introduces leadership models using a simple approach

while challenging participants to learn new concepts. This bilingual curriculum considers

participants as equal partners in learning and uses visual aids, props, and exercises to build

practical skills.

USING THIS FACILITATOR’S GUIDEThis guide is a tool to help you lead each module of the curriculum. It is secondary to your

delivery. The key to success is your enthusiasm, animation, and preparation. Facilitators are

encouraged to tailor exercises and examples to the needs of the group and to ensure cultural

relevance for your participants.

In using this guide:

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• Italicized items are notes to you as the facilitator

• Non-italicized text are scripts you can use to teach lessons

• Words in bold are vocabulary words to be emphasized to the group and reviewed at every lesson.

This guide also uses icons. Icons are defined below:

45-60 min

Represents amount of time needed per section

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Represents when you should be on a slide

Represents when you should distribute handouts

Represents when to lead group activity

Represents when to lead family activity

BOLD Represents a vocabulary word.

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GETTING STARTING

WELCOME/BIENVENIDOS

It is important to provide an environment that makes mothers, fathers, couples and any

extended family members feel welcomed. A few things to keep in mind when you are starting

each class.

• At the beginning of your first session together, introduce yourself and share something relevant to breastfeeding, wellness, or your family. Creating this connection early on will break the ice and start with a base of honesty and comfort.

• Greet parents by their names in a friendly and courteous manner. Ask about their children or their pregnancy.

• Remember to also greet fathers in the same way, asking similar questions.

• Ensure your classroom or place of meeting is representative of all family members, including fathers, teens and extended family members.

• If you are in a temporary location, bring flip chart and images you can put up and remove after each session.

• Ensure there are name tags or table tents with names of each participant.

• Bring supplies to each class: pens, paper, and other supplies needed for that week’s exercises.

• Offer a healthy meal or snack to participants, such as a veggie tray, fruit, nuts, or sandwiches. Provide water or non-sugary beverages such as coffee, tea, or juice. The foods you serve will help reinforce the concepts of health and wellness to participants.

Module: 1

60 - 75 min

ValuesPart 1:

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INTRODUCTION

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Part 1 of Module 1 provides an opportunity to establish the connection between values and

well-being/good health. This introduction will help participants establish a deeper interest and

respect for First Food and Family Wellness for life.

Together we will learn some important information to ensure our family is healthy, happy, and

united in decisions for our family’s future. First, lets get to know each other.

Begin by asking the group what is their name and one of their favorite things to do as a family.

If you have single parents, remind them they too are a family. If you have pregnant moms

with no children ask what they did as children and what they anticipate doing once their child

comes into the world.

Once they begin to share, try to draw out the examples of wellness, healthy nutrition, or

physical activities. This will help as you introduce the following topic.

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Let’s introduce some ideas or concepts you may or may not know. Many of you talked about

outdoor activities and preparing or eating meals together, so lets start there, talking about

food, first food. Does anyone know what we mean by First Food? This is not the first food we

eat first thing in the morning, although it is our first food of the day. Think about the term, first

food, what do you think it refers to? Give participants a chance to think about this.

First food literally means the first food we offer our children during infancy, through breast-

feeding. We will spend more time later in our discussion learning about the benefits of breast-

feeding as a way to start a healthy lifestyle for your family.

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Now let’s think about the term Health and Wellness. Any ideas what wellness means?

Once again allow participants to offer their ideas and try to build upon their responses.

Wellness is the condition of being in good physical and mental health. So the term Health

and Wellness in this case, refers to the idea that we need to take responsibility in making

healthy decisions for ourselves and our family to ensure well-being/salud and lower the risks

of diseases. Lowering the risk of disease (some people call this “prevention/prevención”)

provides us with opportunities to focus better in school, work, and play. Both topics of First

Food and Health and Wellness will be addressed later in this lesson. These topics are the core

of this entire course, so it is important to lay the foundation as we move forward.

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VALUES

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We mentioned earlier that Health and Wellness is taking responsibility and making decisions

for our family. What guides or influences those decisions (whether we realize it or not) are our

Values.

Let’s begin by thinking about what is important to us and our families. Often when we think of

this as values. Does anyone know what a value is?

Allow participants to respond acknowledging each without correcting.

Values are lasting beliefs or principles we live by. They are also shared by groups of people

such as family, community, church, or organizations. Values are important to us. They form and

guide us in the way we speak and act. Think about the value of respect/respeto in our Latino

culture. When we say we should respect our elders, what does that look like? How do we

demonstrate that?

Let parents think through and answer this question. Then you can offer your own personal

example or use the following.

Here is one example of values. A 10-year-old little girl spends very little time with her father

because he works two jobs. She often sees him leave very early in the morning and only

return home to eat a quick dinner to continue with his night job. Only on Sundays does she get

to spend time with her entire family. On one particular Sunday the family attends church, goes

to the park to spend time together, and later stops at the store on the way home to purchase

a few groceries for the week. At the grocery store the little girl selects the loaf of bread that is

on sale, buy one get one free. She encourages her mom to buy that because she wants her to

spend their money wisely so her dad will not need to work so hard and have more time to go

to the park.

Based on the definition of values (one’s lasting beliefs also shared by groups of people such

as family, community, church, or organizations) can anyone identify any values in the story?

Help participants identify the following values:

• Hardwork

• Faith

• FamilyandFamilytime

• Savingmoney

• Respectandhonor(the girl realizing how hard her father works and not wasting money)

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As you can see, values are very import to all of us. How do we communicate our values?

If needed, ask follow-up questions. Here you can offer your own personal example or use the

following:

A mother might demonstrate the value of health and nutrition by making sure to include

vegetables in the meals she prepares. A child might show the value of sportsmanship by going

to practice, not talking back to the referee, taking care of his/her soccer jersey and wearing it

with pride and being a good team player on his/her school’s sports team.

Sometimes the values that we want and choose to live by, the same values that are supposed

to help guide us with our words and through our actions may not always be consistent. We call

that contradiction. Contradiction means not holding true to a value.

Here you can offer your own personal example or use the following:

One example of a contradiction between words and actions is a father who tells their children

never to smoke because it is bad for them and yet smokes cigarettes either behind their backs

or in front of his children.

As you can see values are very important. Now I want to give you an opportunity to identify

and share your own values. Let’s play a game.

LOTERÍAHand out a Lotería card to each participant. Draw value cards one by one, and have people

mark off the picture that corresponds with the value. The first person to get five in a row wins.

End the game by having each person select a value from their Lotería card and explain why

that value is important to him or her.

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We agree values are important. Many of you identified values such as education, success,

work, family, and happiness. Often these values become the reason for setting goals in our

lives. For example we value education, we attend school every day, study hard and as parents

support our children’s needs so they can be successful. According to a 2010 report by Charles

E. Basch, from Colombia University, health-related problems are key causes in limiting

motivation and ability to learn. He indicates “healthier students are better learners”.

“Healthier Students are Better Learners.”

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Or maybe you want to advance in our career/job. But what’s required in getting that promotion

or raise? Allow participants to ponder and answer. Let’s think thru this, if we want to grow in

our career/job we have to get to work every day, be alert and focused and have energy. In

order to accomplish this we need a body that is healthy, strong and rested to support and help

us accomplish our dreams and goals. If our body is overweight, sick and lacking energy can

we do our best? Of course not, that’s why we need a healthy start from birth to adulthood.

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Now let’s talk about an idea often referred as the Quality of Life. When we think about our

quality of life, think about how the choices we make about our health early in life might have a

lasting result on how we feel later. For example, frijoles/habichuelas y arroz are some of the

best foods around. But if we eat them at every meal time instead of mixing it up and having

fresh fruits and vegetables, we will gain weight, and being overweight can lead to diabetes. If

we get diabetes at age 35, our quality of life will suffer. And what are the consequences? We

are not able to play with our children, we are not able to work as hard, we are not able to enjoy

life to its fullness, share with our families, and make memories. But if we make healthier

choices, like going for walks as a family a few times a week and eating fresh fruits and

vegetables instead of frijoles y arroz, we will be healthier for longer period of time. Our quality

of life will be better.

Wrap up the discussion by highlighting the following points.

• WeintroducedthefoundationofourcourseFirstFoodandHealthandWellness.Theywillbeatthecoreofourdiscussions.

• Firstfoodreferstothenourishmentgiventobabiesthroughbreastmilk.

• HealthandWellnessistakingresponsibilityinmakinggooddecisionsinourlives.

• Valuesguideus,helpusmakedecisions,andinfluenceourbehavior.

• ItisimportanttoLIVEbyourvaluesandprinciples(notjusttalkaboutthem)toourfamilymembers,friendsandcolleagues.

• Ahealthylifestylecanhaveanimpactoneverythingwedoeveryday.

• Weallwanttolivetoourfullestpotentialtoensureapositivequalityoflife.

This can conclude the day’s session, and you can do Part 2 the next time you meet. Or, if you want to continue to Part 2 right away, first offer participants a 15- to 20-minute break.