What is Promovision?

Promovision is a capacity building assistance (CBA) program developed and implemented by the US Mexico Border Health Association; and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to strengthen community access to and utilization of HIV prevention services.

Who can use Promovision capacity building services?

• Individual Promotoras
• Promotoras Network and Coalitions
• Community Based Organizations (CBOs) funded by CDC (directly funded)
• CBOs funded by local and state Health Departments (indirectly funded)
• CBOs funded through other sources (e.g.; National AIDS Fund)
• State and local Health Departments
• Community Planning Groups
• Community Health Clinics
• Binational Health Councils (US-Mexico Border)
• Others

Promovision Goals:

The goal of PROMOVISION is to strengthen the role of Promotores in order to :

1. Improve access to and utilization of HIV prevention services including testing by high-risk Latinas of unknown or negative serostatus including their high-risk partners
2. Increase the capacity of CBOs to link HIV-infected people to appropriate prevention, care and treatment services.

What's Promovision | CBA Services | Goals | Background | Why Promotoras | 3 levels of Involvement | Cuentos

Promovision Background

The USMBHA has developed and implemented several successful HIV prevention-intervention programs among Latinos that included a Promotor-based community component. Lessons learned during these interventions helped the USMBHA conceptualize Promovision strategy to strengthen the role of Promotoras to deliver HIV prevention services to ethnic, mostly Latino, populations. This strategy is consistent with CDC Advancing HIV Prevention: New Strategies for a Changing Epidemic or AHP initiative. The AHP initiative has several strategies among them to make voluntary HIV testing a routine part of medical care, so those tests are offered to all patients in clinics and other high-risk individuals in various community settings. The USMBHA uses Promotoras as part of routine service delivery; therefore, they can play an important role in increasing access to and utilization of HIV prevention services, including HIV testing.

Why Promotoras?

• The Promotoras are medical health care extenders - they bring clinical and other health care services to the community.
• Promotoras link clients/patients/users directly to the providers.
• Promotores provide culturally appropriate and cost-effective linkages to services for vulnerable Latino populations.
• Promotoras also have the ability to link services through broad networks and coalitions that include clinics, community based organization, health educator networks, and other stakeholders in the community.
• Promotores Address Structural Barriers : Linguistic, cultural, access, political, systematic.

  Ramos, R.L., & Ferreira-Pinto, J .B. (2002). A Tested Model for Organizational and Capacity-Building in Community Prevention Programs. AIDS Education and Prevention, May 14(3) 196-205.
  Scherer, J.A., Ferreira-Pinto, J.B. , Ramos, R.L., & Homedes, N. (2002). Measuring Readiness for Change in two Northern Border Mexican Communities. Border Health Vol6 (1) 35-41.

Three levels of Promotoras involvement:

1. As individual advocates working at the interpersonal level to affect behavior change
2. As collaborators of Community-Based Organizations to extend or deliver services to reach population affected by access to and utilization of HIV prevention services.
3. As part of community wide or regional networks , to put in place a community wide response.

What's Promovision | CBA Services | Goals | Background | Why Promotoras | 3 levels of Involvement | Cuentos

Cuentos from Promotoras (in SPANISH)

Vicky Avila | Olga I. Hernández | Patricia Osorio

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