Ms. Sahida Martinez is the Lead Community Health Worker. She has over 30 years of
experience doing community-based work. In her home country of Mexico, she was high school
teacher, with a focus on administration, human resources, research, and marketing. After
moving to Little Village, she began to take on volunteer leadership roles. Ms. Martinez became
the Local School Council President, Bilingual Committee Vice-President, and member of the
Parent Teacher Organization and the No Child Left Behind Committee at her children’s schools.
She connected with Enlace as a participant and leader of the Eli Whitney Community School and
became very involved with the Healthy Schools Campaign. When Enlace began to develop its
community health worker (CHW) initiatives, she became an early participant. Ms. Martinez was
then hired as a part-time health promoter in 2014 and then full-time in 2017.
In addition to facilitating wellness education, doing community outreach and supporting
community members in connecting with healthcare and social services, she now supervises a
team of one part-time and four full-time health promoters. She oversees the development of
new initiatives, including community-driven research projects and has taken an extensive
number of trainings that have allowed her to become a Certified Application Counselor, a peer
support group facilitator, Community Contact Tracer Training and a mental health first aid
provider.
Ms. Martinez is currently enrolled in Richard J. Daley College’s new Spanish-language
CHW certificate program.