Increasing Public Health Capacity for Emergency Preparedness in Southern California Latino Communities Using Local Community Health Workers

Southern California communities are susceptible to emergencies due to the high probability of earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and other natural or man-made disasters. Local Public Health Departments (LPHD) are often unable to sufficiently engage communities to promote preparedness and foster resilience due to time and budget constraints. With nearly half of Inland Empire residents being Latino, cultural and language barriers further contribute to community vulnerability. The Loma Linda University School of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center (LLU PERRC) collaborated with promotores to facilitate cross-cultural emergency preparedness communication and education linkages between the LPHD and local communities. Promotores are community-level experts who use their relationships and cultural ties to reach Latinos and promote positive community changes. LLU PERRC is working toward a partnership between LPHD, promotor agencies and other emergency response involved agencies to promote Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and to recruit community members for CERT trainings. Promotores increased awareness of probable disasters, motivated community members to take action toward readiness, and served as trusted liaisons with the County. While promotores are not traditionally engaged by County departments, their involvement with LPHD and LLU PERRC showed that they can function as valuable channels to promote emergency preparedness in diverse underserved communities vulnerable to disasters. This session will examine the challenges, lessons learned, and strategies in engaging promotores as County partners of emergency preparedness communication, education, and training, and the potential to use this model more widely as a best-practice to build public health capacity in emergency preparedness.