Creating equitable access to HOPE resources
While Javiera Brierley Vera, MD, was a Family Medicine resident in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, she chose to do a rotation at the HOPE National Resource Center at Tufts Medical Center because she wanted to learn more about positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and how she could apply the HOPE framework to her field. What she didn’t realize at the time was that there would be a very important role for her to play: making the HOPE framework more accessible to Spanish speakers, both in the United States and in Latin America.
Now, Dr. Brierley is a faculty member at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a family medicine physician who focuses on children and adolescents, a trained HOPE Facilitator, and an ambassador for HOPE in Chile. She continues to help build out the HOPE en Español (HOPE in Spanish) page on the HOPE website: spearheading the translation of HOPE’s materials and formalizing the team of Spanish-speaking HOPE Facilitators.
Spreading HOPE to Chile
During her time at the HOPE National Resource Center, one of her contributions was revamping the Spanish slide deck for the Introduction to HOPE training. In order to make sure that the translated terms actually resonated in Spanish, and that examples were culturally relevant, she consulted with Spanish speaking people from a range of different countries.
“Since…there is a lot of clinical terms involved, we want to make sure that those clinical terms are actually translated in what they’re supposed to be translated to,” said Dr. Brierley. Being immersed in the HOPE team helped her figure out how to do that.
“To be in the HOPE National Resource Center was a great opportunity, because I kind of got a real sense of what the framework was. And also, since I am part of this movement now, and I love what HOPE is doing, I want to help promote access to positive childhood experiences at all levels … and because I’m embedded with that, it’s much easier to translate the resources.”
Since her return to Chile, she has connected her colleagues with HOPE in both formal and informal ways. She has conducted informal HOPE trainings with her university colleagues and with doctors at the primary care facility where she works.
“All my family medicine colleagues know about HOPE, and it makes so much sense to them” she said.
The importance of translating materials and resources
While moving toward a formal collaboration between HOPE, the Family Medicine Department and the School of Medicine at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, she has made HOPE accessible to medical students and family medicine residents through coursework. She and her team are working on courses about HOPEful communities and PCEs for health professionals in Chile. And she has brought the HOPE Framework to the NGO América Solidaria, which is now applying it in its programs.
“I feel like HOPE needs to be known worldwide and that’s why translating all the materials and resources is important,” said Dr. Brierley. “And I feel like all kids and adolescents and families deserve dignity, deserve equity, deserve the chance of having positive childhood experiences. And I feel the only way that’s going to happen is if we …. use their words, if we use their language, if we use their examples.”
The HOPE National Resource Center has trained 79 Facilitators who list Spanish as one of their languages. And since formal tracking began in November 2024, HOPE facilitators have had 15 workshops in Spanish. In 2023, Dr. Brierley coordinated a HOPE keynote via Zoom between the National Resource Center and her university community, with a live Spanish translator.
Creating a network for HOPE en Español
Many others have contributed to the buildout of HOPE en Español. Flavia Maccio, from the Great Start Collaborative in Michigan, has translated HOPE materials and has run a “Train the Facilitator” training in Spanish. Sara Ladino Cano is from EASTIE Coalition in Boston and has translated “Introduction to HOPE” online courses and did the voiceover in Spanish. Ariane Porras at the San Diego YMCA in California has also translated materials and led workshops in Spanish.
Dr. Brierley has ambitions of spreading HOPE across Latin America. In five years from now, her hope is that Spanish speaking countries “know about HOPE, we promote HOPE, and we can all talk about positive experiences,” she said.
In Chile, in particular, she says there is a well established public health system.
“So my goal will be that our government can promote positive childhood experiences as the base of the strategies that involve childhood and adolescence… If we make that happen, and then other governments can do the same…we can focus on the strength of the families, their resilience, and what they do right.”
We want to hear from you!
Our Spanish-speaking communities also need greater access to PCEs, and there is so much that can be done in this area. By collaborating and working together to spread this movement, we can make it a reality! Contact us if you want to be part of the ‘HOPE en Español’ network.
