Community Health Action

Our Community Health Action (CHA) department identifies, educates, and engages members of the community through health promotion and wellness activities, women’s reproductive health and gender-based violence prevention, LGBTQ empowerment, HIV/AIDS testing, counseling and referral, and chronic disease management.

Health Promotion Program

The Health Promotion program partners directly with the Latino community to develop culturally appropriate and peer-based educational methods that promote health literacy, wellness, lifestyle, and environmental changes. Through educational sessions, group interventions, community events, and health promotion campaigns led by trained Peer Health Promoters (promotores de salud), we aim to reduce the incidence of preventable chronic diseases and health disparities in the Latino community. Collaborating directly with our primary care services, the Health Promotion Program enhances La Clínica’s patient access to chronic disease prevention and self-management education and support.

Gender & Health Program

La Clínica’s Gender & Health Program is a comprehensive and holistic health program for Latina immigrant women. The program, also known as ‘Entre Amigas’, focuses on physical, emotional, and social wellbeing, creating a supportive network and solidarity among women. The program offers diverse services including a support groups, advocacy and navigation for survivors of gender-based violence, community education about prevention of violence and sexual and reproductive rights, and guidance in legal and immigration issues. The goal of Entre Amigas is to strengthen participants’ health, respecting their beliefs, in their own language and at their own pace.

Entre Amigas

Sexual Health Program:

La Clínica provides comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services all under one roof. The Sexual Health Program implements community outreach to educate the Latino community about sexual health, HIV, and promote HIV testing services and conducts condom distribution. Sexual and reproductive health educational charlas and family planning interventions are designed and implemented with the goal of promoting positive sexuality.The program also offers HIV system navigation services, providing early support and access to quality HIV care services to HIV-positive Latinos.

LGBTQ Health Program:

La Clínica operates two sites and safe spaces called ‘Empodérate Centers’. Our program is the only comprehensive, bilingual HIV prevention program that targets Latino men who have sex with men and transgender Latinas in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. Historically, LGBTQ individuals have been among the most impacted by HIV within the local Latino community. La Clínica addresses this issue by tackling the underlying causes of the epidemic, including stigma, isolation, depression, and the lack of safe and substance/alcohol-free spaces for immigrants that frequently face rejection from families and communities due to homophobia, transphobia, and socioeconomic and immigration status.

Empoderate