Community Health Worker
Trainings & Ongoing Support
Cuidar la Mente es Cuidar la Vida
ALMA’s “Cuidar La Mente Es Cuidar La Vida” training builds upon the work done by Community Health Workers (CHWs), the front line of support for many Spanish-speaking Latine communities. CHWs are positioned to help overcome barriers to mental health access for Latine people – stigma around mental health needs, not enough Spanish-speaking providers, lack of insurance and cost, and fear of how services might impact documentation status.
By bolstering the ability of their support networks to address mental wellbeing and to be connectors to professional services when those are needed, ALMA helps reduce the number of Latine community members with unmet mental health needs.
Community Health Workers, Peer Support Specialists, Family and Youth Navigators as well as other engaged community volunteers are the target audience for this training. These trainings can be offered as a one or two day training or as a series of four 3-hour trainings. Trainings are primarily facilitated in Spanish. The core elements of these trainings include:
- Community Resiliency Model (CRM)
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- Mental Health 101
- Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR)
If you are interested in learning more about our Cuidar la Mente es Cuidar la Vida trainings, email us at collaborations@elfuturo-nc.org.
Pláticas Prácticas
What are Pláticas Prácticas?
- 30 minutes of training on a topic that has been identified as relevant to the mental well-being of the Latine community
- 30 minutes for a case study or to practice using the models learned during the training
Why and for whom?
- We want to provide ongoing support in recognition of all the work that Health Promoters do in our community.
- We want to create a space for people to learn, hear from each other, and build community.
- Anyone working to improve the mental health of the Latine community is invited to join.
If you are interested in learning more about our Pláticas Prácticas, email us at collaborations@elfuturo-nc.org.
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD