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Community Impact
Health is a community’s greatest asset. Health enables people to learn, work, achieve, succeed and move into a more secure and prosperous future.
Promotores de Salud takes concrete actions to improve the health and well-being of those in our community. Promotores improve health outcomes by connecting with Hispanic individuals and families through health encounters. We also promote and support community-wide health education for all by participating in community activities and events. You can learn about these and other ways that Promotores de Salud impacts and improves our community by reading our annual report.
Promotores de Salud and its parent organization, Blue Ridge AHEC, are committed to the health and well-being of all in our community. By promoting health education reducing health disparities within the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Hispanic community, Promotores de Salud impact begins small but spreads out across the central Shenandoah Valley, creating a healthy community in which all can live, work, learn and do business.
Health Outcomes
Promotores de Salud works with the local Hispanic community to encourage healthy lifestyles and address the main goals of Health People 2010:
- improve life expectancy and the quality of life
- eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population.
Around 9,000 Hispanics in the Harrisonburg area are at an increased risk for disease and health disparities. Communication barriers and the absence of health insurance often limit access to basic services. Many Hispanics also do not have a medical home or relationship with a primary health care provider. The combination leads to a lack of preventative information and diagnoses of prevalent health issues.
So what do we do?
Promotores de Salud encourages an improvement in health outcomes.
Promotores who enter the program significantly improve their pre-and post-test scores due to the knowledge and skills acquired through training.
They each complete a minimum of 100 health encounters, and receive opportunities to continue their education.
Many Promotores participate in the Doula Training Program at the RMH Family Birth Place, the Diabetes Education Program and computer classes.
In 2005, twenty health promoters went on to work and volunteer in health organizations, such as health departments, free clinics, social services and retirement centers.
Promotores become actively engaged in their health, and at t the same time improve the system’s competence to serve the Hispanic population.
Health Encounters
Health encounters propel Promotores de Salud’s Hispanic lay health promoters into the community to spread their knowledge within their circle of influence. Each week, Promotores meet with an expert to study a specific health topic, such as diabetes, AIDS, family planning, vaccinations, tuberculosis or even simple nutrition. Then they become the expert and pass their new knowledge on to family, friends, neighbors, church members and others in the community.
Since 2000, the program has recorded nearly 12,000 health encounters. That’s 12,000 more people in the community who are now more educated and aware of how to improve their health. The numbers only continue to grow—as does the health of our community.
In health encounters, Promotores will:
- identify medical problems in early stages
- show how to access needed health care, thus enacting better use of the hospital, health department and free clinic
- provide information on safety, nutrition, disease prevention
- assist in enrolling eligible children in Medicaid or insurance plans
- distribute and explain Spanish language health materials
- participate in community activities in their churches, neighborhoods and worksites
Activities and Events
Promotores de Salud actively engages and partners with the people and organizations around us.
Activities and events such as employee health fairs at organizations such as Cargill and Pilgrim’s Pride expand our work in the community.
Here, employees learn about relevant health concerns, receive Spanish materials on basic health information, ask questions, and receive information on our training program.
Promotores de Salud’s booths at the International Festival and other local events also connects us with members of the community and allows them to explore our organization and the resources we offer.
Agency fairs provide still more opportunities to collaborate with other organizations, to broaden our influence and to maximize resources. When Promotores de Salud joins with others to actively pool ideas, efforts, and resources, we strengthen the connective tissue that’s essential to sustain a healthy community.
