Empowering underserved communities in Yucaipa, California by building community leadership capacity for preventive health and wellness

As the paradigm of public health intervention shifts from an ‘expert-driven' approach to a community-centered, community-driven approach, we aim to decrease health disparities within Yucaipa, CA (e.g., poor access to affordable, quality health care) using a Promotores-leadership model. The goal is to facilitate the empowerment of volunteers of the Yucaipa Centre for Family Health and Well-Being (YCFHWB) so that they may in turn be health education leaders amongst their fellow community members. This approach allows community ownership on promoting healthy lifestyles through preventive care, which in turn yields sustainability of a community-centered and culturally-appropriate health care intervention.

In this pilot intervention project, qualitative data was collected as part of a needs and assets assessment which included windshield surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. This data collected was used to prioritize health needs and determine feasible interventions based on organizational capacity. Decisions concluded that leadership capacity building was an essential step to strengthen this new organization. Engaged YCFHWB volunteers will receive a 10-hour leadership training (n=15). A pre/post-test will be administered in order to measure the training's effectiveness.

Process evaluation findings from the initial leadership training and community's readiness to engage the community in Promotores leadership capacity building will be presented.

The results of this pilot study demonstrate how capacity building can provide measurable increases in community education and mobilization as well as serve as a model that other newly formed health clinics can follow to develop their own organization.