Strategies for developing a successful community health advocate program

"We want someone who looks and talks like us to help us find ways to be hea lthier." This quote, iron a Dayton, Ohio, community leader in 1992, led to the development ol a community health advocate program with a locus on neig hbors helping neighbors to improve health. This article describes advocacy at the individual level and outlines the step-by-step process taken in Dayt on to develop a community health advocate program. This process includes: ( 1) the advocate recruitment and training process; (2) the roles the advocat es play; (3) how the investment in them pays off; (4) how students can be i ncluded; and (5) how the program is evaluated.