St John Julie A, Johnson Cassandra M, Sharkey Joseph R, Dean Wesley R, Arandia Gabriela
Center for Community Health Development, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M Health Science Center, MS 1266, College Station, TX 77843-1266, USA.
J Prim Prev. 2013 Apr;34(1-2):41-57. doi: 10.1007/s10935-013-0296-1.
Promotoras are trusted members of underserved, at-risk Hispanic communities experiencing social and health inequities. As promotora-researchers, promotoras have the unique ability and opportunity not only to provide outreach and education but also to be actively engaged in conducting research in their communities and serve as a cultural bridge between the community and researchers. In this article, we present a case study of personal and collective empowerment of six promotora-researchers who participated in seven community-based participatory research projects. Data sources included debriefing interviews with the promotora-researchers, milestone tracking and documentation completed during and after each study, and observations by the principal investigator and project managers regarding the role of the promotora-researchers in these studies. We qualitatively analyzed the data to identify the processes and decisions that were developed and implemented in a series of projects, which resulted in promotora-researcher empowerment. We found that active engagement empowered promotora-researchers personally and collectively in all phases of the research study. Common elements that contributed to the empowerment of promotora-researchers were valuing promotora-researchers' input, enabling promotora-researchers to acquire and utilize new skills, and allowing promotora-researchers to serve as both researchers and traditional promotoras. Together, these elements enabled them to more fully participate in research projects, while allowing them to identify and address needs within their own communities.
健康促进员是那些处于社会和健康不平等状况下、服务不足且面临风险的西班牙裔社区中值得信赖的成员。作为健康促进员 - 研究人员，他们不仅具备开展外展和教育工作的独特能力与机会，还能积极投身于所在社区的研究工作，并充当社区与研究人员之间的文化桥梁。在本文中，我们呈现了一个关于六位健康促进员 - 研究人员个人及集体赋权的案例研究，他们参与了七个基于社区的参与式研究项目。数据来源包括对健康促进员 - 研究人员的汇报访谈、每个研究期间及之后完成的里程碑跟踪与记录，以及首席研究员和项目经理对健康促进员 - 研究人员在这些研究中所扮演角色的观察。我们对数据进行了定性分析，以确定在一系列项目中所形成并实施的、能使健康促进员 - 研究人员获得赋权的过程和决策。我们发现，积极参与使健康促进员 - 研究人员在研究的各个阶段都能实现个人及集体赋权。促成健康促进员 - 研究人员获得赋权的共同因素包括重视他们的意见、使他们能够获取并运用新技能，以及允许他们同时担任研究人员和传统健康促进员。这些因素共同作用，使他们能够更充分地参与研究项目，同时让他们能够识别并满足自身社区的需求。
