Increasing capacity for ethnically-based community leaders to engage in policy change: assessing the impact of a train-the-trainer approach.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in healthcare access and outcomes, particularly among underserved communities. As one site participating in the NIH-funded Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19, our focus was to address COVID-19 disparities by training immigrant and refugee communities to advocate for their needs by increasing capacity to campaign for policy-level changes.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a train-the-trainer policy advocacy program for ethnically-based community leaders within San Diego County using a mixed-methods evaluation.

Methods: We partnered with a non-profit social change, intermediary organization to adapt a five-session, 4-hour per session training that was conducted over five weeks. A baseline survey, pre- and post-training surveys, and ethnographic documentation were employed during each session.

Results: Among participants (n = 16), 50% were Latino(a), 25% were Somali Bantu, and 25% were Karen. Training results were relatively stable with slight variations in perceptions within and between sessions. The first session showed a slight decrease in confidence by the training participants, while sessions 3, 4, and 5 showed increases in confidence. Ethnographic documentation revealed that engagement patterns evolved over time, with the Latino(a) participants having the highest levels of engagement initially but with more equitable engagement across participants by the final session.

Conclusion: These findings provide valuable feedback which will aid in the improvement of the training sessions for future use. This study also underscores the potential for community leaders to effectively advocate for policy changes and offers insights for future empowerment initiatives.