[ad_1]
Training session for Community Health Workers at the El Sol facility in San Bernardino. Volunteers learn about various health topics that include diabetes, mental health, and covid-19, to name a few, and take that knowledge back into their communities to empower and raise awareness.
Local Advertisement
El Sol is a non-profit organization
based in San Bernardino that is built on training dedicated and passionate
Community Health Workers (CHW) to help educate and build their communities.
“What we do is recruit CHWs from within
their respective communities, to then train them to help educate their
community,” explained Alex Fajardo, Executive Director of El Sol.
This training center is vital to
execute the work El Sol does. This is the beginning of change for each of their
CHWs and their respective communities.
“When we recruit, we want those that
are passionate about their community,” said Fajardo.
Local Advertisement
El Sol has a focus on building the
community by educating them on various health topics that include diabetes,
mental health, and covid-19, just to name a few.
“We want to empower the community,”
shared Fajardo.
This community empowerment approach
builds that unity and trust among each community. By training CHWs, then
deploying them into their own community, El Sol creates an example for those
receiving assistance.
“For us, we want the CHWs to help
create a ripple effect of positive health,” explained Fajardo.
The ripple effect starts with the
training. Each CHW and promotores must go to a training center where El Sol
helps develop and enhance their skills.
“I love the amazing stories that come
from our CHWs. Our CHWs help those within the community create their own
solutions and make change,” expressed Fajardo.
With Covid-19 being such a huge part of
healthcare over the last year-and-a-half El Sol has created numerous ways to
educate their community members.
Part of El Sol’s efforts to educate
community members of Covid-19 are comic strips and a play, which can be found
on their website.
“With the play we wanted to do
something different, it really was a team effort and we’ve gotten positive
feedback so far,” said Fajardo.
The play features a hero named Captain
Empath. He partners with CHWs to educate the community of Covid-19, and
motivate them to get vaccinated to help protect each other.
El Sol believes by educating and being
that inspiration for their community, residents can build a healthy and strong
community.
“For any organization that wants to
train their community volunteers they can reach out to us and receive the
necessary training to help their community,” explained Fajardo.
Local Advertisement
[ad_2]
