San Antonio, Texas — Health Confianza’s partner, the WestCare Foundation, is hosting a Summer Extravaganza summer program for children and teens. It is also co-hosting a mental health symposium in late June, and is capping September with family summit on mental health and substance misuse.
Check out the flyers below to see how you can get involved:
For More Information About the WestCare Texas Summer Extravaganza 2025 Call: 726-229-0795 Email: LeReta.GatlinMcDavid@westcare.com or Julie.Jones@westcare.com
Download the flyer here.
Pre-registration is required. Use the QR code to register.
Please Register by September 26, 2025, by clicking this link or copy and paste into your browser: https://stxhidta.org// Download the flyer here.
San Antonio, Texas — Back to school fairs are a fun way to provide families with the tools they need to stay healthy. Here’s an evolving round-up of upcoming back to school events that include health and community resources. Some may also offer vaccines for children and adults, but keep in mind that it may require pre-registration.
KLRN Back to School Bash, Health Confianza will be present
South Central AHEC’s Back to School Health and Wellness Fair, Q&A with a doctor and psychologist
San Antonio, TEXAS —YWCA San Antonio, a nonprofit focused on empowering girls and women through education, workforce and health programs, is leaning into the drama of Spanish-language telenovelas with its latest educational initiative. Along with its new 30-minute telenovela, YWCA is providing associated training, consultations and moderated discussions.
Earlier this spring, YWCA premiered the telenovela, La Cuenta Pendiente (Outstanding Balance), which focuses on common real-life challenges as it delves into timely topics including healing in black and brown communities, neurodiversity and wage equity.
For the uninitiated, telenovelas are typically limited series romantic dramas that are beloved by Latino communities and many others globally.
La Cuenta Pendiente (Outstanding Balance) tells the story of Lisa, Lorena, and Lily—three women facing an unfair system that tries to silence them. But working together, they are able to rise, resist, and fight back.
“This telenovela is more than just a dramatic story—it’s a movement to spark conversations about equity, domestic violence, and resilience. We want it to be a starting point for more people to feel seen, heard, and supported,” said Teresa Garza, Director of Marketing, YWCA San Antonio.
YWCA San Antonio is available to be booked for screenings of the telenovela, as well as for moderated discussions and related trainings.
“As the Director of Racial Justice and Gender Equity at YWCA San Antonio, I’ve witnessed firsthand how narrative can be our greatest ally in healing. La Cuenta Pendiente invites us into the lived experiences of women of color and immigrant communities—stories of resilience born from adversity,” said Misty Harty, Director of Racial Justice and Gender Equity, YWCA San Antonio. “When we pair that powerful storytelling with our Soul Sanar racial justice training, Neurodiversity inclusion work, Wage Equity advocacy, and our practical How to do DEI without doing DEI guidance, we do more than educate—we build bridges of understanding, solidarity, and transformation. Together, we honor each voice, dismantle systemic barriers, and cultivate a community where every woman can thrive.”
The nonprofit doesn’t have any planned screenings, but encourages the community to visit YWCASA.org for updates on future screenings.
San Antonio, Texas — Every day, public health experts and community health workers are having conversations about health with people with different perspectives.
Some community members may mistrust the health care and public health sectors, others are skeptical about preventive and curative options, or may feel invisible in their health care journey.
That said, health professionals understand that an essential part of improving health is having respectful conversations that can lead to life-saving cancer screenings, crucial annual flu shots, annual check-ups and/or lifestyle changes.
It’s no surprise that effective health communications is one of the most popular topics delivered by the Health Confianza team, said Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, associate professor of Medicine, director of Global Health at the Cheever Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics, director of the South Texas CHW Workforce Preparedness Collaborative and co-director of Health Confianza,.
We asked Rosenfeld to share some of the principles that lead to meaningful health conversations in his own words.
*Please note that this primer is intended as introductory information. Health Confianza’s health communication training curriculum offers more in-depth information. Check this website and Health Confianza socials for updates on upcoming trainings.
4 Tips for Health Communication
1. Validate
If a person starts a conversation or asks a question from a particular viewpoint, the first thing you should do is validate and don’t dismiss. In other words, don’t be judgmental about those beliefs and perspectives and validate that their perspective is real and valid.
One way to validate is to say something like “that’s an outstanding question, and not the first time I’ve heard it.” Validating without confirming the accuracy of their statement can help diffuse a tense opener.
2. Active Listening
Another important principle is using active listening, which is when you as the listener are not just waiting for your opportunity to speak. You’re actually listening to, absorbing and responding to the things being said in the conversation.
3. Be Curious
Curiosity is a key part of actively listening. If you are curious, then you are not dismissing what the person is saying. You are responding to them with authentic questions or statements, such as:
Tell me more?
What do you mean by that?
Where did you hear that?
With curiosity, you are leading the person to think about what they are saying and explain their position. You are giving them the space to share their thoughts, and sometimes, not always, they may come to their own ‘aha’ moment.
4. Don’t Seek to Win
Try to enter a conversation to understand and learn versus seeking to win an argument. The minute you seek to win, you are no longer actively listening, you are looking at how you can actively counter the things that they are trying to say.
Curiosity and not seeking to win are interrelated principles. If you go into a conversation with curiosity, then you are naturally asking questions, which leads the individual to share their experience with you. That goes back to our first principle, acknowledging people’s perspectives.
Power of Words:
The word “and” can be a powerful, useful tool in keeping a conversation going. It is also an antidote to “but,” which can be argumentative.
“Beware of the but,” said Rosenfeld. “I agree with you, but…” You don’t actually agree because you are using the word but, which serves to negate everything you say before the ‘but’.
Use bridging statements as a connection between their statement or idea and what you would like them to hear. Examples of some bridging statements are:
That’s really interesting. I have heard something like this…
Buena Idea: A series where we look to our Community Health Clubs for inspiration and new ways to communicate health.
San Antonio, TEXAS — Sunshine Health Club, a Health Confianza Community Health Club located at Sunshine Plaza apartments, is living up to its name, bringing positivity through connection and group activities.
Most recently, Kim Rendon, a community health worker and Health Program Specialist II with the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, led club members in producing their first zine (a short magazine) that focuses on “celebrating community.”
Kim Rendon, who facilitates the Sunshine Health Club, showing the online version of the club’s zine.
An avid photographer, Rendon wanted to engage in a community-building activity that could highlight the creativity of club members, so she brought the idea of a zine to the club.
“I was trying to figure out a fun and creative way to capture the stories of participants,” Rendon said. “A zine seemed like an engaging way to archive the work we do as a collective and document the Sunshine Health Club.”
They were immediately on board.
“It’s a community thing, it’s a group project,” said club member Cindy Carroll whose photography became the zine’s cover art.
A photo collage filled with club moments featured in the zine.
To get started, Rendon decided to turn the monthly club meetings into zine workshops, focusing on different sections. For the “All About Us” section, she had the club members complete a worksheet by interviewing each other. For the “Recipes” section, she tied in Health Confianza’s nutrition curriculum, food demos, and club member’s own recipes. Finally, for the “Resources” section, the club decided to share community resources and advice for diabetes, one of the chronic illnesses that affects many of their members.
Reflecting on the zine, club members said it was a great way to learn more about each other, as well as to share their special skills and individual talents, such as photography and cooking.
Teresa Hampton said the zine was a great ice breaker for neighbors.
“It was a great way to socialize and to get to know each other, to get to know everyone’s names,” Hampton said. “You want to know your (neighbors) in case you need something, you’ll have someone to contact. We always have bingo every day, but this is something informative and fun.”
Both Rendon and the other club members are looking forward to working on another issue of the zine.
“I would love to help create more zines with the Sunshine Health Club and any other clubs that are interested in engaging participants,” Rendon said. “Maybe the next one will be more DIY and fully created by the members.”
In the sections below, we asked Rendon to give us insight into the club activity and break down the process of zine making. A link to a PDF of the zine is also available below.
Four Questions with Kim Rendon
The Zine’s All About Us section features mini profiles on each member.
Was creating a zine harder or easier than you thought it would be?
It was fairly easy to make. I went ahead and did the first digital zine to preserve histories and to have it be more accessible to share with partner organizations online.
What was the response from members?
They were excited to see the zine and read the recipes and want it to continue. There was definitely lots of input for the next zine!
What did you think of the Zine process?
It was a great creative outlet for all of us. It’s easy to reproduce and share with community and just a great way to document and share the story of the health club. I enjoyed the process and would do it again!
Anything you would do differently?
I would have tried to include more aspects, maybe more resources or another activity for the participants to share more of themselves. I think that is something I would like to do in the future.
Break it Down: How to make a Club Zine
The cover of the Sunshine Health Club zine.
Zine Production
Timeline: Three months to create including activities. For the digital zine, the club used Canva and saved it as a PDF. “We haven’t archived it, but I am thinking of having it submitted to Central Library’s mini zine library,” Rendon said.
Printing was a longer process.
Staff: Facilitator, health club members, editor.
Staff Roles: A person to facilitate workshops and conversations. Also, a person responsible for transcribing if zine is digital, such as an editor or someone who can help proofread and provide an eye for composition.
Photography: Utilize the skills of the members or ask them for their personal pictures.
Content (How did you pick your stories?): The club involved the members. They asked what their interests were and utilized the workshops they had planned and included them in the zine.
Materials: Worksheets, printing paper.
Printing: Internal cost for limited prints; consider larger printing chains like Office Depot, where it could cost between .18 and .62 cents a page.
San Antonio, Texas — A new training center at UT Health San Antonio will offer Texas Department of State Health Services continuing education units (CEUs) for community health workers or promotores/as and continuing health worker instructors.
The new community health worker training center — located at the Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics — is focused on serving the existing community health worker (CHW) and community health worker instructor (CHWI) workforce at UT Health San Antonio and will also be open to the entire community.
The training center is led by Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, associate professor of Medicine, director of Global Health at the Cheever Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics, director of the South Texas CHW Workforce Preparedness Collaborative and co-director of Health Confianza.
“We are here to provide a service for UT Health San Antonio’s CHW workforce,” Rosenfeld said. “We know it can be challenging to find continuing education particularly for instructors, so we are now here to fill that gap. We want to collaborate with faculty and staff across the university to help sustain and strengthen our community health workforce.”
For faculty, departments or entities interested in turning their own content into continuing education units, the training center can provide some technical assistance as well as submit the CEU to the state for approval. This gives faculty and staff at the university greater support in converting existing learning modules, conferences or other learning opportunities into continuing education units.
Community health workers and community health worker instructors in Texas need to obtain 20 CEUs every two years to maintain their CHW certification.
Locally, MetroHealth, YWCA and South Central Area Health Education Center (AHEC), which is housed at the university, provide CHW certification training and continuing education.
“There are other CEU providers in the city, but we have a public health focus, a health care focus on CHW continuing education and CHW Instructor CEUs,” Rosenfeld said.
This new training center will also provide a gap in CHWI training, as only a fraction of training centers in Texas are certified to provide continuing education for CHW Instructors.
Later this summer, the training center will begin providing CEUs. Initial offerings may include public health modules, Community Health Club facilitator training, as well as other curricula originally developed to serve Health Confianza’s Community Health Club facilitator model.
“We want to be able to provide engaging and innovative CEUs for our on-campus CHWs. There are a number of CHWs and CHWIs working for various parts of the university,” he said. “We want to help build a robust workforce on our campus.”
The training center is provided by Rosenfeld; Melanie Stone, DrPH, MEd,CHWI, assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine and director of Community Service Learning; Shayanne Martin, MPH, CHWI; Santos Barrientes, CHW/CHWI; Gracie De Leon, CHW/CHWI; and Cynthia De La Garza-Parker, CHW/CHWI. All are community health worker instructors and part of the Health Confianza team.
For the foreseeable future, there will be no charge for CEUs.
For more information, reach out to Confianza@uthscsa.edu or follow Health Confianza on Instagram and Facebook @HealthConfianza.
San Antonio, Texas — Health Confianza, a county-wide health literacy program focused on improving health outcomes through health literacy and collaboration, is giving away 5 aprons and 5 tortilla warmers to a total of 10 lucky followers on IG and FB in a random drawing to be held on May 8th. If you win, we’ll direct message you.
We are also giving away a total of 30 (aprons and tortilla warmers) to individuals who belong to one of our active Community Health Clubs. Each participating club facilitator will be given a set of giveaway rules tailored for the club, but the official rules still apply.
Giveaway Rules
Official rules: Eligibility to the “Fiesta Flavor Giveaway”. This giveaway is organized by Health Confianza. Employees of Health Confianza are not eligible to enter the giveaway, vendors of Health Confianza, and retailers, or any of their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies or any other company or individual involved with the design, production, execution or distribution of the Sweepstakes, and the immediate family. Open to the public (followers specifically) NO purchase or payment is necessary to enter or win the
Sponsor and Administrator Sponsor: Health Confianza, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, TX 78229
Giveaway period: The time of the giveaway begins April 24, 2025, and ends May 4th, 2025.
How to enter: To enter, follow @HealthConfianza on Facebook and or Instagram.Followers must like the post (optional SHARE POST on their social media) and tag 1-2 friends in the comments. One entry per person per social media channel unless you enter in our extra entry challenge. The Extra entry challenge will allow the public to get one extra entry in the giveaway if you post on your social media, tagging us in your favorite fiesta themed food you like to cook. Entry can also be done by sending us your favorite fiesta theme recipe through social media or through an online form accessible by a QR code.
Winner selection: On May 8th, we will select the winners across social media platforms. The winner selection will be done live on Facebook and Instagram on May 8th. Time to be announced. Health Confianza will choose between a tortilla set or an apron for the winners — it will be done at random. The selected winners will be tagged on a social media post on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on May 10th, 2025. Health Confianza will direct message the selected winners on the social platforms to collect their legal name, phone number, and other contact methods to arrange the delivery of the
Verification of Potential Winner Potential winner must continue to comply with all terms and conditions of these Official Rules, and winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements. Prize is non-transferable and no substitution will be made except as provided herein at the Sponsor’s sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute any listed prize for one of equal or greater value for any reason.
Prizes 10 (10) Grand Prize winners will win either a tortilla set or apron handmade by Fuerza Unida. Actual items may differ from depiction of the prize in Giveaway advertising, and Sponsor disclaims all liability in conjunction therewith.
Entry Conditions and Release By entering, each participant agrees to: (a) comply with and be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor and Administrator, which are binding and final in all matters relating to this Sweepstakes; (b) release and hold harmless Sponsor, Administrator, the prize suppliers and any other organizations responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the Sweepstakes, and all of their respective affiliates and related entities and each of their respective officers, directors, agents, vendors, employees and other representatives (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liability, including but not limited to negligence and damages of any kind to persons and property, including but not limited to invasion of privacy (under appropriation, intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light in the public eye or other legal theory), defamation, slander, libel, violation of right of publicity, infringement of trademark, copyright or other intellectual property rights, property damage, or death or personal injury arising out of or relating to a participant’s entry, creation of an entry or submission of an entry, participation in the Sweepstakes, acceptance or use or misuse of prize (including any travel or activity related thereto) and/ or the broadcast, exploitation or use of entry; and (c) indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liabilities (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to an entrant’s participation in the Sweepstakes and/or entrant’s acceptance, use or misuse of prize.
Publicity Except where prohibited, participation in the Giveaway constitutes winners’ consent to Sponsor’s and its agents’ use of winners’ name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions and/or hometown and state for promotional purposes in any media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration.
General Conditions Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Sweepstakes, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond Sponsor’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Sweepstakes, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process 2 or the operation of the Sweepstakes or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. Entry in the Sweepstakes constitutes an entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to abide by and accept the terms and conditions of these Official Rules. No substitution of prize or cash equivalent except at Sponsor’s sole discretion. Cash equivalent may be less than the approximate retail value of the prize. Prize is non-transferable except at the sole discretion of the Sponsor. All federal, state and local taxes on the prizes are winner’s sole responsibility. By accepting the prize, winner waives the right to assert as a cost of winning said prize, any and all costs of redemption or travel to redeem said prize and any and all liability that might arise from redeeming or seeking said prize.
Limitations of Liability The Released Parties are not responsible for: (a) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Sweepstakes; (b) technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (c) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Sweepstakes; (d) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Sweepstakes or the processing of entries; or (e) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Sweepstakes or receipt or use or misuse of any prize. If for any reason an entrant’s entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant’s sole remedy is another entry in the Sweepstakes, provided that if it is not possible to award another entry due to discontinuance of the Sweepstakes, or any part of it, for any reason, Sponsor, at its discretion, may elect to hold a random drawing from among all eligible entries received up to the date of discontinuance for any or all of the prizes offered herein. No more than the stated prize will be awarded. In event that production, technical, seeding, programming or any other reasons cause more than stated number of prizes as set forth in these Official Rules to be available and/or claimed, Sponsor reserves the right to award only the stated prize by a random drawing among all legitimate, unawarded, eligible prize claims.
Governing Law All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules or the rights and obligations of the Participant, or Sponsor in connection with the Promotion shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules or provisions that would cause the application of any other state’s laws.
Entrant’s Personal Information collected from entrants is subject to Sponsor’s Privacy Policy and is available at. Each entrant acknowledges that, by entering the Sweepstakes, entrant has opted into Sponsor’s Privacy Policy and, by opting into Sponsor’s Privacy Policy, has read and accepted Sponsor’s Privacy Policy.
Sweepstakes Results For Sweepstakes results will be announced on Social Media platforms Instagram and Facebook Sponsor: Health Confianza
San Antonio, TEXAS — Health Confianza, a health literacy program housed at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), was selected for a 2025 Presidential Excellence Award for Staff Team Excellence. A committee of UT Health San Antonio peers selects the award recipients. Health Confianza’s team will be honored with a plaque during an April dinner event.
Team Leader: Jason Rosenfeld, DrPH, MPH, CHWI, Associate Professor/Research Team Members: Santos Barrientes, CHW, Community Outreach Coordinator-Senior Adelita G. Cantu, PhD, RN, Professor Maria G. Castillo DeLeon, Community Outreach Coordinator-Senior Cynthia Parker, CHW, Community Outreach Coordinator-Senior Melanie A. Stone, DrPH, MEd, Assistant Professor/Research Mia Kisako Vento, Project Coordinator-Senior Sandra Selene Zaragoza, MA, Marketing & Comm Specialist-Senior
Community Health Club discussions lead to many great “a-ha” moments. In the spirit of club knowledge sharing, we are starting a series called “Buena Idea,” looking at some of the smart solutions and practical ideas that our club facilitators and members are coming up with to live healthier.
San Antonio, Texas — When Marissa Gutierrez of the city of San Antonio’s Healthy Neighborhoods program set out to do Health Confianza’s Salud con Sabor curriculum at The Untouchables Community Health Club, a club member approached her with an idea.
Cheryl Tondre, club member, thought the club would benefit from learning how to cook with an air fryer.
Cheryl Tondre suggested they take the opportunity to teach members how to use an air fryer to cook healthier, using less fats and oils.
At first, Gutierrez said, she wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to incorporate an air fryer into the curriculum.
“I would say that I was a little nervous at first when my community members requested it as our main focus,” Gutierrez said “I didn’t have an air fryer at the time and had very little knowledge when it came to using it.”
However, when she learned that every community member in the club had an air fryer at home that “they either used daily or was left to collect dust in the box,” she agreed it was worth a try.
La Idea
Tondre saw the value in air fryer for senior community members like her in terms of safety and convenience. Many people own an air fryer, Tondre said, but don’t use it because they aren’t sure how to use it or what it can do.
“The air fry is so easy to work with,” Tondre said. “I’ve done pork chops, I’ve done chicken, I’ve done cookies, I’ve done pizza. And it keeps the elderly away from the stove.”
It can also help with electricity costs during the summer because you don’t have to turn on the oven, Tondre added.
The Untouchables ran with the idea and developed eight weeks of demos using the cooking device. From November to December, they made dishes including BBQ air fryer chicken, egg salad, air fryer Chex mix, and air fryer seasoned potatoes.
Marissa Gutierrez, club facilitator, demonstrating how to make BBQ chicken using an air fryer.
What helped with the success of the air fry series, Gutierrez said, was their openness to learn and engage with one another.
“The community members who used their air fryers daily had the opportunity to share their knowledge with their neighbors, and the neighbors who didn’t have as much experience got to learn from their more experienced neighbors and hands-on learning,” Gutierrez added.
The air fryer series was a hit, with packed meetings and seniors asking questions on both the nutrition curriculum and air fryer recipes.
Gutierrez also added an activity on local grocery apps for smart phones. That activity led to showing members how to first download the app, then use the app for coupons and additional savings (see story). While some members needed help downloading the apps, most were eager to do so.
The Untouchables celebrate the completion of Health Confianza’s nutrition curriculum with a graduation.
The Untouchables wrapped up their graduation of the Salud con Sabor curriculum on Jan. 14th, posing for pictures with their completion certificates and eating garlic cheesy bread made with air fryers.
“We were able to harness and highlight the community’s strengths and help each other grow, especially me,” Gutierrez said. “They inspired me so much that I went out and purchased a small air fryer to help me in the kitchen. I believe they all enjoyed the ability to learn new ways to take smalls steps towards their own successes in reducing the amount of fried food they eat.”
San Antonio, TEXAS — The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and its partners are offering free continuing education for Community Health Workers. To register, see below or click here.
