When the federal government began the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1999, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services knew that there were a large number of immigrants whose children would be eligible for the MCHP but who would not be aware of the program or know how to enroll. Using traditional outreach approaches, such as brochures and fliers in English, would not be effective in reaching these immigrant families. Since many were from Central and South America, the department decided to adopt a model frequently used in those regions. For generations, many Latin Americans received vital health education from lay members of their community who were trained as health promoters. The Department recruited members from those communities to train as health promoters to reach as many children as possible to enroll in MCHP to ensure that all had medical care.

The goals of the program are to improve the health of recent immigrant families by training native speakers from different countries to help enroll members of their communities in various publicly funded health programs.

The health promoters have assisted 966 children to enroll in MCHP and have provided referral and health education services to almost 5,000 people. The number of volunteers has increased from 35 to 48, with most remaining in the program from one year to the next.