Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain

    Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain

    America Bracho, MD, MPH; Ginger Lee, MPH; Gloria P. Giraldo, MPH; Rosa Maria De Prado, MFT  |  2016

    $19.95

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    Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain tells the story of how Latino Health Access developed its groundbreaking promotor model of peer-to-peer outreach and education in Santa Ana, California. Facing problems such as obesity and diabetes, their strategies, advice, and accomplishments will spark hope and change throughout communities. Also available in Spanish.

    This title is available as an eBook:
    Kindle, Nook or Kobo.

    “We cannot fight diseases without fighting the conditions that create, foster, and perpetuate them.”

    — Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain

    Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain gives voice to the Latino experience in Santa Ana, California, and describes how solving today’s major health problems requires more than just medicine — success depends upon being anchored in the community, nurturing confidence and unlearning apathy.

    The story of Latino Health Access shows how a committed group of activists can build a dynamic force for health in their community. Recruiting the Heart will inspire readers to embrace their cultural roots, use evidence-based strategies to improve social determinants of health, and tap into the strengths and resources of their communities. It offers clear and practical strategies for recruiting, training, and engaging community members as promotores to build a healthier, brighter future.

    Use Recruiting the Heart to organize in your community, evaluate needs, generate programs, build coalitions, and keep your founding principles alive. With sage advice on how to raise money and survive in hard times, this guide is a practical resource for health organizing.

    Heralded as an organization of “moxie and masa” by the LA Times and featured in the highly-acclaimed HBO documentary series, “The Weight of the Nation,” Latino Health Access is at the forefront of improving health by addressing the entirety of people’s experiences compassionately and comprehensively — use Recruiting the Heart to improve the health of your community!

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    Preface by Robert K. Ross, MD, President and CEO, The California Endowment (PDF)

    Table of Contents (PDF)

    Praise for Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain

    “Latino Health Access provides more than an inspirational story, it also provides an instruction manual for those interested in building dynamic and healthy communities. The good news is: There is hope!”
    — William H. Foege, MD, MPH, former Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

    “At a moment when ‘community engagement’ has become a buzzword, this book offers a vision of health in which the community is not an add-on or afterthought but the very heart of care. Required reading.”
    — Luz Vega-Marquis, President and CEO, Marguerite Casey Foundation

    “With engagement, passion, and powerful storytelling, this book makes clear that people are the experts in their own lives and recognizing this translates into better, healthier communities.”
    — Alfonso Diaz Smith, Colectivo de Prácticas Narrativas