SEARHC - Community Wellness Advocate certificate program

Meet our graduates

More than 80 percent of CWA students are working in health promotion. CWA graduates organize health fairs, healthy food demonstrations, physical activity programs, school health presentations, exercise classes, health screenings and community profiles. Here are what former students who now work for SEARHC had to say about the CWA program.

June May, Craig/Klawock
Renae Mathson, Sitka
Litia Garrison, Sitka
Georgie Reese, Kake
Evelyn Williams, Juneau

June May, Craig/Klawock

SEARHC Community Wellness Advocate III

"I was recruited for the CWA program when I was still a stay-at-home mom. The progam appealed to me because it was a way that I could help others in my community by providing education and awareness about healthier lifestyles. I had taken a HUGS class from (former SEARHC Alicia Roberts Medical Center Clinic Administrator) Cindy Gamble, who was at the time a Health Educator for SEARHC in Craig, and found that the non-diet approach worked for me. Being a convert made me want to share that with others.

Through the various CWA tracks that I have taken over the last six years, I have learned many things that have given me the confidence and capability to, in turn, share them with my community. I am very appreciative of SEARHC, UAS and my instructors, who have dedicated themselves to the program."

Renae Mathson, Sitka

SEARHC Steps to a Healthier SE Alaska Program Community Project Assistant

"I loved the CWA program. I enjoyed being able to learn about the various ways that we can try to reach out to the different indigenous nations that live in Alaska. We were given tools that will also us to continue to learn more about who we are and how we can help our communities. I strive to use the CWA skills I learned, and am looking forward to continuing my education next year."

Litia Garrison, Sitka

SEARHC WISEWOMAN Program Health Educator III

"The CWA Training program was an excellent introduction to health promotion and health education, and provided me with a jumping off point for the work in public health that I now do. As a SEARHC WISEWOMAN Program Health Educator, I use the knowledge and skills gained during the CWA class daily. I am very appreciative of the opportunity to have taken the training."

Georgie Reese, Kake

SEARHC Community Wellness Advocate I

"The classes offered under the CWA program helped give me a broad view of wellness in my community, the state of Alaska and our nation; and they equiped me with the tools I needed to teach nutrition and exercise classes to children and adults.

Nutrition, community wellness and injury prevention classes were very informative. The classes I was dreading the most — speech and English — actually were fun, and they helped me to clearly present to the various groups I work with.

Advice given by Lisa Sadleir-Hart, instructor at my first training, turned my thinking around. She stated that, as mothers, we tend to put everyone else first, but that, in promoting community wellness, we need to 'Take care of yourself first so you'll be able to take care of others.'

I learned the definition of wellness in my first class: 'An approach to health that focuses on balancing the many aspects, or dimensions, of a person's life through increasing the adoption of health enhancing conditions and behaviors rather than attempting to minimize conditions of illness.' This was in contrast to my impression of wellness as absence of illness.

I think the favorite part of my job is that it puts me in a position that allows me to contribute to the wellness of community members, sharing in their successes and their lives."

Evelyn Williams, Juneau

SEARHC Steps to a Healthier SE Alaska Program Community Wellness Advocate IV

"I'd always worked in an office and never had considered, nor applied for, any other type of work. I happened, by chance, to work in the field of prevention in December of 1994. The job was to facilitate two community groups under a CDC-funded grant, Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH). SEARHC had applied for funds from the CDC to mobilze grassroots groups in their small communities to have them discuss and plan interventions, under the premise that residents in the community were best at finding solutions to address their health issues.

I was so taken by this concept because it wasn't anyone from 'outside' coming in to tell us what our problems were and telling us "here is the money and here's what you do." There are seven steps to this model; our grassroots groups followed the model and had success in addressing some of our priority health issues.

When the 'Community Wellness Advocate Training' was offered I took it as an opportunity for me, who is a resident in a rural area, to gain some training and academic education to do this meaningful work. During the training and since completing the certification program, I have been engaged in various preventive activities to serve our people. Some of the preventive activities I've worked with are Health Risk Appraisals (HRAs, a preventive diabetes screening); community-wide physical activity initiatives (including competitive activities and strength training); various nutrition education workshops; offered one-on-one tobacco cessation services and facilitated the same in classes; worked with the WISEWOMAN program as a community advocate and enrollment; and initiated local wellness fairs.

You know, we have natural helpers in our communities, folks who volunteer or are people we turn to for help. That's a community wellness advocate. People with the academic training from outside our communities are not flocking to us. This program gives the training for us to help ourselves."

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