Community power and the promotor: A neighborhood based approach

Community health workers (or promotores) are a CDC recognized best practice model for individual and community wide behavior change. However, unless promotores are trained to address the root causes of the health disparities, the support they provide to communities can become an additional barrier to systemic change by facilitating individual level behavior change out of the context of the social determinants of health. Somos Mayfair is a neighborhood based organization in East San Jose whose promotores have been working successfully for over 10 years to improve family health and wellness and early school success. Most of the immigrant families we work with face multiple crises – most of them related to larger systems in which they are often denied a voice. Building community power through a leadership development program for service program participants who become promotoras is one way to address this problem. Our leadership development model includes both hands on training in working with other community members and a curriculum through which we support promotoras to develop personal agency (identity, motivation, enhance social analysis skills, strengthen their ability to address personal and community needs (self-efficacy), and increase their motivation to take concrete action. The curriculum has been effective in increasing indicators of promotores' individual power and in the building of base groups that have the potential to effectively address the root causes of health disparities. Promotor training that includes a social justice perspective can have a positive impact on increasing both individual and community level power.