Berta Carbajal
“Any position I’ve ever held in a professional capacity, I’ve always been a promotora at heart,” Carbajal says.
As a third generation promotora, she carries that torch and seeks to uplift other community health workers through her Helping Other Promotores Excel (HOPE) Network, of which she is co-founder and manager.
And it is for this dedicated, consistent, long-standing work that the All of Us Research Program from University of Arizona and Banner Health honored Carbajal, naming her the September/October Arizona Health Champion during National Hispanic Heritage Month this year.
Carbajal describes the network as “community-created, community-driven.” Formalized in 2009, the network seeks to empower other promotores in communities by way of resources, education, and training on a variety of topics and issues.
“We recognized that there were a lot of individuals in the community using the promotora model, but yet they did not have any formal training,” Carbajal says. “The community health worker is centuries old, it’s not a new concept at all. Promotores are the go-to people in every community. There are individuals that are trusted, that the community feels comfortable going to in a moment of crisis or for information. They are the go-to people. ... We decided that we wanted to create a platform where we could all meet and collaborate, network, but also provide training, opportunities, and education on every issue, every need that they face in their communities.”
Promotores often address more than just a community’s physical health issues, Carbajal says. They exist as holistic caregivers, responding to a multitude of different problems that households and neighborhoods face, such as unemployment, insurance, language barriers, food scarcity, and mental health.
