Bridging Research and Community: Insights from a New Mexico CEAL Regional Team Community Partner

Fabiola Rodriguez is a community leader and promotora de salud (community health worker) who has been working with the New Mexico CEAL Regional Team, also known as Wide Engagement for Assessing COVID-19 Vaccine Equity (WEAVE NM), for three years. She now collaborates with WEAVE NM to bring the voices of community health workers to the research team. In October, WEAVE NM presented its research findings at the American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference about training community health workers on cultural health literacy. In this interview, Rodriguez discusses how this initiative emphasizes the importance of preserving cultural traditions and the long-term benefits of community engagement efforts for public health. 

What is the goal of this research? 

The title of the project, Unidos Sanamos, means Together We Heal. The optimal goal is to present other ways of healing to community health workers - not just Western medicine, but also all the traditions of the different cultures in New Mexico. Northern New Mexico is one kind of culture and southern New Mexico is another. So, we combine everything together to empower the community health workers and it's a strategy to preserve the languages, customs, and traditions that we have here. We’re bringing all these pieces together so we can heal as a community.

How does this research address health equity?

This project is very important for addressing health equity. Why? We have traditional healers, community health workers, and scholars from the University of New Mexico working on the project. We hear from the community health workers who bring the community voices with them, the scholars that lead the science, and the traditional healers who have the cultural healing and understanding of all the traditions that have been around for thousands of years. We all work together.

What impact do you hope these community engagement efforts will have on the community?

A dream I have is that we can all access this knowledge and wisdom to apply it in our lives to have a better society and individuals with better health. Not just physical health, but holistic health that includes the spiritual, mental, and emotional parts. I envision that we can transfer all this knowledge that we put together, starting with the community health workers who have direct contact with the community members.

How has the partnership between WEAVE NM and community health workers benefited the community?

I am grateful for this project because we finally have connected southern and northern New Mexico, and we are learning from each other. This project has helped community health workers in both parts of the state to continue growing and empower them. Community health workers have not always been listened to and now, finally, our voices are being heard. 

What did you enjoy about attending the APHA conference?  

So many things! First, connecting and building trust with other community health workers who attended. Second, exchanging information with them and building a bigger network. Here in the in the south of New Mexico, I call it the “forgotten land” because we don't have that connection with other communities and community health workers in other states. A lot of people will never know that my little community exists. I wanted to learn, present, and give a voice to the community that I live in – and not just for my town, but the whole south of New Mexico.

The WEAVE NM presentation, Unidos Sanamos (Together We Heal): Community Health Worker’s Training on Cultural Health Literacy, took place on Monday, October 28 at APHA. 

Learn more about how WEAVE NM is finding solutions to tackle structural inequities and advancing health equity and holistic well-being for multi-cultural and diverse geographic communities at https://www.weavenm.org/