UNM’s Comadre a Comadre Program Receives Model Program of the Year Award

UNM’s Comadre a Comadre, a Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion pro­gram co-developed in 2003, was awarded the “Model Pro­gram of the Year by the New Mex­ico Com­mu­nity Health Work­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (NMCHW) at its 17th annual Train­ing Con­fer­ence recently. The award is given to pro­grams who have shown “excep­tional work in their community.”

“We are truly hon­ored to receive this award,” said Elba Saave­dra, Comadre a Comadre pro­gram direc­tor. “Com­mu­nity Health Work­ers deliver a diver­sity of ser­vices through edu­ca­tion, advo­cacy, resources and social sup­port which are in valu­able to the com­mu­nity. Col­lec­tively, staff coor­di­na­tor, peer men­tors and nav­i­ga­tors, vol­un­teers and stu­dents, deliver a ‘pow­er­house’ of sup­port to Hispanic/Latina women through­out the con­tin­uum of breast care.”

The pro­gram was co-founded by Saave­dra and local com­mu­nity breast can­cer sur­vivors who saw the need to cre­ate a pro­gram that would pro­vide advo­cacy, edu­ca­tion, emo­tional sup­port, and resources for women with breast can­cer and women with breast health needs in a culturally-linguistically man­ner. It was designed to inte­grate the impor­tant Hispanic/Latino val­ues and strong beliefs, such as the impor­tance of fam­ily, prayer and spirituality.

“The pro­gram has brought breast health classes and health­care nav­i­ga­tion assis­tance to more than 1,500 Hispanic/Latina women since 2010 as well as case man­age­ment, follow-up and psy­choso­cial sup­port to over 300 Hispanic/Latina women with breast can­cer,” said Saavedra.

Part of the nom­i­na­tion read: “The pro­gram co-founders dared to val­i­date the impor­tance of embrac­ing these val­ues, which serve to pro­tect when life with­out warn­ing shakes us to the our core. The pro­gram is unique in that it recruits and trains Peer Men­tors and Peer Nav­i­ga­tors, who are both Hispanic/Latinas and breast can­cer sur­vivors, to pro­vide one-on-one emo­tional sup­port and help women in nav­i­gat­ing the health­care system.

“Through their col­lec­tive efforts there is now more dia­log and a per­sonal ‘face’ has been placed on can­cer slowly remov­ing the veil of ‘silence’ and fear often asso­ci­ated with hav­ing this dis­ease in our com­mu­nity. Were it not for the unselfish com­mit­ment of the program’s entire staff, many women would have faced their breast can­cer jour­ney in silence and with­out the ser­vices they needed. Col­lec­tively, the Comadre Pro­gram embod­ies the true spirit of giv­ing and help­ing with compassion.”

In addi­tion to Saave­dra, the Comadre a Comadre staff includes: Gena Laugh­lin, project coor­di­na­tor; Dorali Calderon, com­mu­nity resource nav­i­ga­tor; Rosario Gon­za­les, Cather­ine Lan­davazo, Esther Leyba and Dalila Romero, Comadre Peer Men­tors and Nav­i­ga­tors; Rosa Morales and Julia Aguil­era, vol­un­teers; and UNM stu­dents Lisa Her­rera, Car­men­glo­ria Wich­lens, Michelle Wong and And­dra Lamberson.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit: Comadre a Comadre.

For more infor­ma­tion on the NMCHW, visit: New Mex­ico Com­mu­nity Health Work­ers Asso­ci­a­tion.

Media Con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; email: scarr@unm.edu