L.A. Care Health Plan Health Promoters/Promotores Program – Reorganization of a Community Health Workers Program to Reach More Ethnically Diverse Communities

Emerging research has demonstrated the efficacy of a peer-to-peer model to address health disparities in disadvantaged communities. In 2007 L.A. Care launched the Health Promoters/Promotores Program, based on the necessity of its members to have improved access to healthcare and prevention services. The need especially resonated in areas that demonstrated low socioeconomic status, linguistic challenges, and lack of social resources. Hence, the development of a community education program that uses a peer-to-peer model, the program graduates provide culturally and linguistically appropriate health education and health care navigation materials to the 11 RCACs (Regional Community Advisory Committees) which encompasses over 335 L.A. Care Health Plan consumers and the communities they represent. Trainings include access to care, diabetes, nutrition, breast cancer awareness, and asthma. Although the program demonstrated success amongst Latinos, the need to include both African-American and Asian communities surfaced. Organizational and program change was needed to provide a program that was ethnically inclusive. In order to recruit diverse members, the following three systems changes were implemented; (1) recreating standardized marketing materials to reflect the population served, (2) meeting time changes and (3) relocating training locations. As a result of these changes, an ethnically diverse program has been developed which will address health and social disparities in specific “hard to reach” communities that would not have been addressed otherwise.