Using popular education for community empowerment: perspectives of Community Health Workers in thePoder es Salud/Power for Health program

Empowerment has been advanced as a strategy for eliminating remaining health disparities. Popular education promotes community empowerment by increasing individuals’ and communities’ awareness of their capacity and providing a framework and strategies through which participants can identify and resolve problems. Poder es Salud/Power for Health, a community-based participatory research project, sought to improve health and decrease disparities in African American and Latino communities in Multnomah County, Oregon, through the intervention of Community Health Workers (CHWs) who used popular education. In-depth interviews were conducted with five CHWs involved in the project to explore their perceptions of the effects of the use of popular education on the CHWs and their communities. Results suggested that CHWs possessed a shared understanding of popular education. Effects on the CHWs included increases in community participation and identification, desire to advocate for the community, and sense of personal...