The literature has documented the use of community health workers as an effective strategy to work with underserved communities. However, there is scant research on the strategies community health workers use when working in research studies. This qualitative study examines how promotoras (community health workers) implement their community cultural wealth to participate as data collectors in the control site of the Niños Sanos, Familia Sana (Healthy Children, Healthy Family) study. Our findings indicate that promotoras implement their cultural values, knowledge, and practices to recruit study participants and facilitate the data collection process. This study has implications for the recruitment and development of culturally and relevant linguistic training targeting promotoras in Mexican-origin communities.
Keywords: community health workers; cultural competence; focus groups; health promotion; qualitative methods.