“Lend a Hand to Health”: Process evaluation of a male promotores network

Background: Latino immigrant men experience disparities in social isolation, depression and health care access, especially in areas where Latino communities are not yet established. We describe the process evaluation of “Lend a Hand to Health,” an intervention developed by a community-based participatory coalition in western Pennsylvania to improve Latino immigrant men’s health and health-care access through a promotores network.

Methods:  The community partnership defined the promotores’ network structure, the promotores’ job description and role, the hiring process, and the client recruitment strategy. The partnership also decided on the topics covered in the initial training, and designed the “Circle of Life,” a tool to elicit participants’ needs and to develop a success plan. Data sources were community partnership minutes, promotores meetings’ notes, promotores’ debriefings, researcher’s journal, external evaluator reports, and project paperwork.

Results: We hired eleven men who attended the initial training. A third of them did not reflect the community in educational level and required extra mentoring from the other promotores to recruit participants. Promotores requested topics for monthly refresher trainings, according to their needs in the field, including housing, sexual health, and immigration. Promotores consented 184 participants and reported that the “Circle of Life” facilitated building rapport and eliciting the needs of the participants. Participants’ needs went beyond health issues. Therefore, promotores forged new collaborations with local social service organizations.

Conclusions: The original design of the intervention had diverging success in its different elements. Where challenges arose, adaptations driven by promotores and the community coalitions enabled maintaining success.