KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - An idea proposed by a local participant of a monthly REACH diabetes support group is being made into a Spanish-language community play to raise awareness about diabetes among the local Latino population.

The play, Tres Historias de la Vida (Three Life Stories), will be this Saturday, May 6, at 3 p.m. at the South Park Community Center, 8319 8th Avenue South, Seattle. The play is free and open to the public.

Tres Historias de la Vida portrays the lives of three people with diabetes and their relationships with family and friends. Using Liberation Theater technique developed by Augusto Boal, the play relies on audience participation, empowering individuals to find ways to change their own lives.

The play is written by Lupita Patterson and the acting is done by community volunteers. Sea Mar staff and Sara Barker, a public health graduate student, helped organize and implement the project.

The project is a joint effort by King County REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) 2010 Coalition, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, Public Health - Seattle & King County, REACH program participants, a professional scriptwriter and actress, and a public health graduate student from the University of Washington. Funding is provided by the Washington State Department of Health through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For more information on REACH, visit: www.metrokc.gov/health/reach

Public Health – Seattle & King County is among the largest metropolitan health departments in the country, providing effective and innovative health and disease prevention services that achieve and sustain safer and healthier communities for over 1.8 million residents and visitors of King County . Answering the needs of an increasingly diverse population, Public Health - Seattle & King County touches people's lives every day through health promotion and prevention activities, disease surveillance, health care, outreach and referral services, environmental health services, emergency medical care, jail health services, and readiness and response to public health emergencies.

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