“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”
–Dolores Huerta
Capacity-building is about bringing together timely and relevant life experiences with the motivation and skill to empower action.
In this section, we summarize how El Sol CHW/P TC builds the capacity of CHWs/Ps to accomplish positive change in communities by bridging relevant life experiences with learning objectives. El Sol CHW/P TC facilitators foster professional and emotional development so that CHWs/Ps have the capacity to transform their communities’ health conditions. El Sol CHW/P TC has combined a set of training modalities and facilitation processes into a Capacity-Building Ecosystem (CBE). The CHW/P scope of practice anchors the CBE.
▶ CAPACITY-BUILDING ECOSYSTEM
The CBE training modalities include mentorship, coaching, customized group training, opportunities for self-reflection, emotional assessments, and reflective supervision.
For example, the Basic CHW/P Foundations Training Program, developed by El Sol, utilizes individualized training plans for cohorts of 10-20 individuals in an interactive group setting that encourages meaningful discussion, reflecting on personal experiences, and developing action plans for connecting with the community. CHWs/ Ps participate in knowledge-based group training sessions, develop a personal intervention work plan, conduct home visits both during and after the training, and debrief with a program mentor/coach.
▶ FACILITATION ACTIVITIES
The CBE facilitated group training using non-formal education methods that model horizontal power relationships. These include activities such as self-reflection, team-building activities, art, photovoice, theater, and debriefing during or after an experience. Aspiring CHWs/Ps share their own stories and realities and connect their experience to their knowledge and skill-building. Debriefing can occur during or after an experience. The facilitator asks the group to reflect on their experience and to identify points of learning. There exist many ways to debrief an experience. Leaders can use journaling, photography, and drawing, to mention a few techniques. Getting thoughtful responses from participants is the key element.
▶ FACILITATION STYLE
While each El Sol Training Center facilitator has their own style, there is a common thread among all El Sol CHW/P TC facilitators. El Sol CHW/P TC facilitators see every CHW/P as an expert and leader in their own community with a wealth of experience and insight.
Therefore, training sessions are inclusive of individual experiences, with CHWs/Ps sharing their own stories and realities, connecting their experience to their knowledge and skill-building. The group is able to bounce ideas off of one another and experience the power of collective analysis. By creating a safe space that models listening and psycho-emotional awareness, El Sol CHW/P TC facilitators foment a learning environment that allows authentic personal and professional growth.
The dialogue provides the facilitator with real-time insight into how to guide the session. While still reaching the session learning objectives, facilitators might opt to deviate from the lesson plan in order to uncover and highlight the wisdom of the group. This means that at times if participants are deeply engaged in a conversation that is exploring personal and community themes, the facilitators must recognize the opportunity to deepen the analysis of the topic and modify the training schedule accordingly. This emergent and dynamic facilitation technique encourages conversation about individual and community transformation based on the experiences of the people in the room which is associated with psychoemotional awareness that involves self and group awareness.
▶ PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL EMPOWERMENT
Psycho-emotional awareness is how El Sol CHW/P TC operationalizes conscientización and refers to a CHW/P being aware of the intersection between their life experiences, their personal motivations and talents – and of those around them. As CHWs/Ps build their psych-emotional awareness, they are better able to influence both their own and their community’s knowledge and skills on various health topics. They become more confident to acknowledge and integrate their talents and personal experience with their work with others. Given the challenges of community-engaged work, emotional readiness and resiliency is a key ingredient to CHW/P success. Therefore, the El Sol CHW/P TC capacity-building experience, and subsequent practices, highlight the emotional readiness, self-growth, and adaptability of each CHW/P.
The El Sol CHW/P TC capacity-building ecosystem prepares CHWs/ Ps for community-based interventions. When practice is integrated into the learning curriculum, it fosters action and problem solving orientation. The next section describes how El Sol CHW/P TC approaches community-based interventions to health inequities.ess.