Our Approach
At El Sol, strengthening the CHW/P workforce isn’t just about delivering content; it’s about honoring and expanding a community-rooted movement for health equity. Our approach is grounded in the belief that CHW/Ps must be supported to lead from their own lived experience, cultural insight, and community trust, not reshaped to fit existing systems.
Our work is guided by:
The El Sol Training Center model supports CHWs/Ps through a participatory, practice-based learning process shaped by self-directed learning and shared evaluation. As CHWs/Ps apply skills in real-world settings and reflect on their experiences, training evolves in response. This approach strengthens individual practice, supports a connected workforce, and contributes to healthier communities.
- Health equity as a core value shaping all training and support
- Community transformation as the overarching purpose of CHW/P work
- Culturally grounded practice that honors lived experience, language, and trusted relationships
- Partnership and reflection as drivers of sustained change
Popular Education in Practice
We draw deeply on popular education, a nontraditional teaching methodology that supports people in examining and responding to the social, economic, and political conditions shaping their lives. This approach centers collaboration and collective knowledge, creating learning spaces where experience informs analysis and action.
By building on what CHWs already know, popular education creates space for deeper confidence, emotional readiness, and engagement in community-driven work. Learning unfolds through an ongoing cycle of dialogue, reflection, and action that supports shared understanding and meaningful change.
Learning and Teaching Cycle
A continuous process of action, reflection, and dialogue that allows CHWs/Ps to learn from practice and apply shared insights to future action.
Horizontal Power Relationships
An equitable learning environment where lived experience is recognized as knowledge and learners and facilitators engage as co-creators of understanding.
Searching for Root Causes
A collective analysis process that examines the social, cultural, and structural factors shaping behaviors and conditions.
Conscientización
The ongoing development of critical awareness and personal growth that helps CHWs/Ps understand their role in improving community conditions.