When San Juan County Health & Community Services recently released its 2023 Community Health Assessment, one of the top three community-identified priority needs was Access to Health Care Services. Across multiple measures of healthcare access, San Juan County fared consistently lower than Washington State averages. For so many of our hardworking Spanish- speaking community members, adequate access to healthcare is even more challenging due to barriers of language, insurance regulations and our county’s remote locale.

That’s why we were so grateful to help organize the first ever convening of our newly formed San Juan County Latinx Community Health Worker network on March 5th , 2024. Thanks to the support of North Sound Accountable Communities of Health, Peace Health and private funders, our network has grown to include nine trained Spanish-speaking Community Health Workers (CHWs) as well as community volunteer Promotores who help organize preventative healthcare opportunities and spread the work among friends and neighbors who may lack access to care.

At the recent convening, our CHWs came together to learn about the emerging expansion of state health insurance eligibility, plan for bringing more preventative health resources to our islands and ensure that some of our county’s most vulnerable community members have support connecting with essential services such as prenatal care. Working together, this dedicated network of CHWs and Promotores is making grass roots progress in improving healthcare education and access, while building a powerful collective voice for health equity across San Juan County.