Health advocacy for young, low-income, inner-city women

The Urban Women's Health Advocacy Training Project was a university-based demonstration program designed to collect data on the health status of urban women and to test nursing interventions for training community health advocates. Thirty Hispanic and black trainees between 17 and 21 years of age were selected to participate in an eight-week, 20-h/w program emphasizing women's health education, health advocacy skills, and career awareness. This project has many implications for nursing practice with young, inner-city women. Enhancing the self-care and advocacy skills of these women maximizes their potential for use of available health services and their ability to influence the expansion of the services required to meet their own and their families' health care needs. Problems in funding and conducting such demonstration projects are discussed.