Message from the Chair Elect

Message from the Chair Elect 

In November 2010, I attended the APHA Annual Meeting in Denver.  My experience in this meeting, along with the valuable resources of the CHW Section offered, have given me the  tools to keep working against the immense  challenges we are facing in our communities. 

CHWs are facing big changes in our communities and being part of CHW’s APHA Section would help all CHW’s, Promotores, CHR’s, and  Lay Health Workers around the country to be a strong voice for our communities.  My experiences at the APHA Annual Meeting in Denver have motivated me to ask all of you to be effective community health workers.  We must stay united. We are the only ones that can do it.  REMEMBER that a healthy community is a strong and prosperous community, and if our communities are healthy and strong, our nation will be, too.

On Jan. 8, 2011 the state of Arizona faced a shooting spree where six innocent people were killed and 13 were injured.  One of the injured was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.  As America continues to stuggle with racism, hate and discrimination, now is time for us as CHWs to be more united than ever.  Our communities need us. We need to take a bigger leadership role because we are the voices of our communities, and we need to take that voice to our Congress and let them know that we are here and we are facing health and social disparities in our marginalized groups.  We need to take action for social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities. REMEMBER, the only way we can do this is by being united and  participating and being a member of APHA CHWs Section.

Chair Elect 

Maria Lourdes Fernandez