Healthcare Leader, Congregations and Community Health Centers collaborate to build capacity and improve health: A Community Promotora Model

Kaiser Permanente collaborated with Congregations Organizing for Renewal (COR) and Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in Hayward to expand the leadership skills and capacity of Promotoras de Salud (Health Promoters), who help to promote community health and wellbeing by educating their neighbors and encouraging them to take action to change their environment. Promotoras help to empower hard-to-reach monolingual and bilingual immigrant residents in health and quality of life issues, such as asthma, diabetes, and nutrition and weight management. In one year, COR has conducted ten trainings for 50 promotoras on “one-on-one” relationship building and outreach, as well as research skills, running effective meetings and opportunities to increase access to health care coverage. These trainings have helped to enhance promotoras capacity to build lasting relationships in order to reach and educate more people about disease prevention, while also helping them begin to identify the causes and potential solutions for health and community-related problems. The promotoras developed action plans around outreach. As a result of these plans they have had over 250 one-on-one conversations with immigrant families in their homes to build relationships, identify concerns and share important health information. Thus far, they have held two health sign up days to enroll children and families for health coverage, particularly for the uninsured in the Ashland area of Hayward which is predominately Latino.