In the News

Community Health Workers Are on the Rise. Here Is Why They Are Indepensable.
November 2021 / Direct Relief

At the California-based organization Vision y Compromiso, which trains, supports, and advocates for community health workers and promotores, executive director Maria Lemus explained that many of these workers have their roots in informal volunteering.

Lemus’s mother, Manuela, worked in the fields and at restaurants, and also cleaned houses – but in her spare time, she brought food and other resources to members of her community. “How I grew up is typical of the network that exists within our community,” Lemus said.

For a new warmline called Estamos Juntos (“We Are Together”), Vision y Compromiso is building on that model, training promotores to help people experiencing grief and loss, isolation, and domestic violence, among other issues. Promotores can connect people to support groups, educational programs, or other resources, and are also trained to identify more serious mental health issues that require referral to another organization.

Since it began, the warmline has reached thousands of people.

But there’s an important difference from the work that Lemus’s mother once did for friends and neighbors: With help from a Direct Relief grant, Vision y Compromiso is paying for benefits for its promotores. The organization is also one of those offering a living wage – a strategy that Lemus explained is also “a women’s equity issue,” since so many promotores are women.

From the Direct Relief article

Coronavirus and Latinos: How promotores can help
JULY 15, 2020 / Race and Coronavirus Podcast
In this podcast, Maria Lemus, executive director of Vision y Compromiso, talks about how promotores and community health workers are trying to help the Latino community during the coronavirus crisis.

When Grandma Becomes an Early Childhood Educator
JUNE 17, 2020 / New America Weekly

Promotor Model Gives Communities Healthier Outcomes, Experts Say
JUNE 25, 2019 / South Kern Sol

This Is What Quality Looks Like: A visit with families, friends, and neighbors
JUNE 11, 2019 / The David & Lucile Packard Foundation’s Insights