Latino Immigrants Connecting to Community

Niurka de la Caridad Pineda Aponcio and her family arrived in Durham, North Carolina from Cuba in 2022. Driving this major life change were tightly-held aspirations for her family, including better K-12 schools and brighter prospects for higher education for her young children, stronger economic prospects, and access to advanced health care.

Niurka’s family experiences are not unique for a substantial and growing portion of the American population. In recent decades, immigrants from Central and South America have continued to arrive in the U.S. at a strong and steady pace. Respondents to the 2023 KFF/LA Ties Survey of Immigrants identified better work and educational opportunities, a better future for their children, and more rights and freedoms as top priorities for their move.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos in 1970 made up 5 percent of the U.S. population and numbered 9.6 million. Between 2000-2010, and again from 2010-2020, the Hispanic/Latino population through immigration and births accounted for half of U.S. population growth, reaching 62 million in 2020, and just over 65 million in 2023, now constituting nearly 20% of the U.S population. Today, one-third of Latino adults in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the 2023 KFF/LA Ties Survey of Immigrants.

In South Carolina, the Latino population grew by over 300 percent between 2000-2024, the highest growth rate in the nation. While political issues tied to immigration routinely grab news headlines, the realities of meeting the life needs of these new Latino community residents in the Palmetto state are the focus of an organization named PASOs, based in Columbia, SC.

Compelling dreams and daunting challenges

The aspirations of Niurka’s family and those like hers are more than just pipe dreams, according to survey data gathered by KFF. Survey data gathered in 2023 by KFF from over 1,000 Latino immigrants showed that “most Latino immigrants report a higher quality of life in the U.S. than in their countries of birth and believe their children’s lives will be better than their own.

Alongside this compelling long-term vision are an array of challenges, beginning with significant language barriers that make progress difficult. Niurka recounts that when her family arrived in Durham, “I had been facing a lot of different difficulties… We didn’t know how to navigate the systems here. I did not know how to enroll my child in school.”

Noting the growth of Latino populations across the U.S. and in South Carolina, PASOs Executive Director Maria Martin says that our systems weren’t ready to provide services “in a way that made sense for the [Latino] community. PASOs is an organization that focuses on serving Latino communities through the community health worker model.”

While the “health worker” title may seem to indicate a tight emphasis on health care, Martin explains that, “When we talk about the word health within the title of a community health worker, we’re really talking about overall holistic wellness of people. All of our community health workers are able to fill the gaps that sometimes we have between just people and specifically their needs.”

PASOs community health workers go beyond traditional health care to strengthen what are known as social determinants of health. Prevention and support strategies, including deployment of community health workers, are proven to improve health outcomes not only for individuals, but entire communities.

By partnering with an array of community agencies, PASOs’ community health workers connect Latino community members with an array of supports that include culturally responsive education on family health, early childhood development and positive parenting skills, and individual guidance for participants in need of resources and leadership development. The work of an individual community health worker can include on-going community outreach and engagement, counseling, connecting families to social opportunities and supports, as well as advocacy with and on behalf of Latino community members.

PASOs also helps organizations working with Latino populations meet the needs of families in ways that build trust through culturally competent outreach, technical support and best practices.

Data show that community health workers create positive change. A 2023 study from The Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA), within the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, found that community health workers improved health outcomes. While improving health care experiences for community members and enhancing the long-term quality and cultural responsiveness of health and social services, they helped improve prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, cancer, asthma, and mental health.

Founded in 2005 with early support from The Duke Endowment in partnership with the Arnold School of Public Health, PASOs today has trained, certified and manages hundreds of community health workers, offering services in 28 South Carolina counties and serving thousands of individuals and families across urban and rural communities.

Martin points to a simple but powerful mantra, as well as partner support, as the sources of PASOs’ success. “Nothing about us without us. Our community health workers are from the communities they are trying to reach. They have the lived experience,” she says. “The Duke Endowment has been a real strength for PASOs because they have believed in our work, and they want to understand the difference that our work makes.”

For PASOs community health worker Lizbet Herranz, the work is best described by the name of the organization. “Pasos means steps,” she says, “and the reason PASOs is [successful] is because we grow together, we learn together, and we go together…one step at a time.”

Herranz is the PASOs community health worker who has worked with Niurka de la Caridad Pineda Aponcio and her family since their arrival, and de la Caridad Pineda Aponcio describes Herranz as “mi hermana [my sister],” reflecting the trusted relationship between PASOs community health workers and families.

For Niurka de la Caridad Pineda Aponcio, the difference that PASOs has made is clear. “PASOs is a great organization. They are very wonderful friends and for the community. My family life is a hundred percent better, complete and happy.”

Learn more about PASOS.