The aim of Women And Community (WAC) is to bring about measurable and sustainable improvements in health within the Westlake community*. The training team will prepare community-based cadres of Promotoras, community members trained to disseminate health-related information to neighbors.

In total, Women and Community will train 60 Promotoras, over two years. The emphasis on health literacy will result in critical personal and community empowering skills of self-efficacy, goal setting, group cohesion, self-determination, leadership, peer education, communication, organizational management, and community asset building.

An Effort of Partners

The program is implemented in partnership with Central City Neighborhood Partners Collaborative (CCNP) and The Women’s Foundation of California.

The WAC training team is comprised of partners that include:

• Coro Southern California,
• University of Southern California Schools of Dentistry and Pharmacy
• UCLA Department of Social Welfare.

The first class of Women and Community Promotoras graduated in the fall of 2005.

*(For purposes of the WAC program, a ‘community’ is defined as the attendance area around a specific elementary school. The community in the Westlake area, just north of Pico Union and immediately west of downtown is that which surrounds Gratts Elementary School.)