St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre concluded its Scarborough Breast Health Community Action Project yesterday by bringing together the project team, partners and producing a report on sharing lessons learned from project. The project was the result of a 29-month grant from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Ontario Chapter, to provide breast cancer awareness, prevention, and early detection workshops in Scarborough among immigrant and low income women from the Chinese, English, Somali, Tamil and Urdu speaking communities in Scarborough.
Multicultural peer leaders, a critical feature of the project, are hired, trained, and mentored to conduct culturally-sensitive, and language-appropriate breast cancer prevention information that is also easy to understand for a varied socioeconomic audience. Peer leaders were essential to the success of the project and actively engaging women in their communities better. They worked hard to overcome objections and apathy, remove barriers to screening by booking appointments for women, providing interpreters and giving out TTC tokens to ease the burden of transportation issues. According to Joanne Mercer, Toronto Public Health nurse, “This project provided a positive change in the lives of women’s health in the community.”
The Scarborough Breast Health Community Action Project successfully achieved its expected results. Outreach to under screened immigrant and low income women was well received by 1,760 workshop participants and 4,077 participants at interactive displays. Approximately 300 women attended the Ontario Breast Screening Program with project support which removed information, language, social, cultural and transportation barriers. “We are thankful for the support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in providing women in Scarborough with the knowledge and screening they need to reduce the impacts of this disease,” said Larry Burke, Executive Director of St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre. “The project not only helped women better manage and protect their own health, but they also have the power to influence and inform their friends and family members with the knowledge they have gained.”
According to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, an estimated 22,700 women in Canada were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. Statistically, one in nine Canadian women is expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime, and one in 28 will die of it. It’s important to remember that the chance of getting breast cancer increases with age, especially after age 50, which makes targeting this population essential to early detection and treatment. When breast cancer is detected and treated early, there is a good chance it can be cured.
The Scarborough Breast Health Community Action Project is initiated by St. Paul''s L''Amoreaux Centre in collaboration with Agincourt Community Services Association, Toronto Public Health, Immigrant Women''s Health Centre, Quantum Medical Imaging Services, & West Hill Community Services. This project is funded by Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation - Ontario Chapters for a period of 29 months (October 2007 – March 2010).
