ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Janeth Vazquez is a leader in the Liberal community, working as the marketing and business development director at Southwest Medical Center and a member of the Liberal City Commission as well as a variety of other positions in the community, area and state.
This coming Friday, Vazquez will be the keynote speaker at a Latino Leadership Luncheon hosted by the Kansas Latino Community Network (KLCN) in Dodge City.
Vazquez said her talk will focus primarily on the correlation between civic engagement and health equity.
“Studies have shown that communities with higher levels of civic engagement often have better health outcomes,” she said. “This includes lower rates of chronic diseases, better mental health and higher life expectancy.”
While the event is hosted by state Latino community leaders, Vazquez said everyone is welcome, and she added her presentation will benefit everyone who participates.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about encouraging people to be more inclusive, to be civically engaged,” she said. “This is going to offer leadership development, and at the end of the day, we all need leaders in our community. Inclusivity in leadership is very important so everybody can thrive, so our communities can thrive.”
Vazquez said this simply boils down to everyone working together.
“This program will give them leadership training so they can become leaders and mentors,” she said. “They’re going to get the training they need to be leaders in their communities, and it’s great because it’s going to help everyone at the end of the day. We all thrive when we are inclusive.”
KLCN’s mission is improving health equity by empowering Latinos through non-partisan civic engagement, leadership development and coalition building, and with a seemingly lack of leadership amongst Latinos and Hispanics, the luncheon is open to everyone, but it will be more specific to the needs of those populations.
Vazquez said she feels the lack of Latino and Hispanic leaders is big, and she said many leaders are needed from those populations in communities.
“If you look around, I feel it’s always the same people serving on all the boards in all the communities,” she said. “We need to be more proactive and offer these type of leadership trainings so we’re encouraging more people to serve their communities.”
Vazquez said one of the ways to get more Latino and Hispanic leaders is to offer leadership training in the communities those people call home.
“A lot of times when we want leadership training, we usually have to travel out of town,” she said. “It’s great we have LEAD Liberal, but not everybody has the financial resources to attend LEAD Liberal, or they don’t have the time, flexibility at their job to be able to take a day off work and go to the classes. There’s different barriers such as financial reasons, employers, so with being able to bring these type of trainings to their communities, it just makes it easier for people to take these courses.”
Vazquez said Latinos and Hispanics can likewise take advantage of opportunities to partner with a leadership organization, and when given such a chance, she always says “yes.”
“Regardless of how busy or if I have things going on, I always find a way to make accommodations to be able to attend and help them in any way,” she said. “I think it’s important we serve as role models and we use our personal stories to try to empower other people to serve.”
Vazquez said she also gives multiple examples in her testimonies of how she feels leadership has shaped her life and her success.
“I feel if people start taking leadership courses, it will also provide many valuable resources and tools for themselves,” she said.
Vazquez said many people do not understand what leadership is about.
“I feel people have always seen leadership as a title or you have to have a certain profession,” she said. “They don’t see it as an action. Leadership is the practice of helping other people to serve in your community, and sometimes, I think there’s confusion as to what leadership means. I even heard with my own family. Why would I go to an event like that? That’s just for people who have higher positions. I’m just a housekeeper. What business do I have going to these type of trainings? I think we need to retrain our community that leadership is the act of serving. It’s not a role or a title, and everybody is a leader. At the end of the day, everybody has the opportunity to be a leader.”
Vazquez said she believes by showing how higher levels of civic engagement often lead to better health outcomes, this can likewise improve health services.
“Engaged communities are more likely to have health services that are responsive to the specific needs, leading to better health equity,” she said. “Civic engagement can lead to policy changes that prioritize health equity such as increasing funding for health initiatives in unpreserved areas.”
In conclusion, Vazquez said civic engagement is vital for health equity because it empowers communities to advocate for their needs, fosters social support networks, increases awareness and influences policies that address health disparities.
“The correlation between civic engagement and health equities is supported by research showing more engaged communities tend to have better health outcomes and more equitable access to health services,” she said.
Vazquez added civic engagement is not just about voting or political parties.
“It’s about inclusion and belonging, advocating non-partisan that leads to health equity and better health outcomes in our communities,” she said. “It’s not just about Latinos being better. It’s about the whole community thriving. The best example I can give is if one person is sick, more people are going to get sick, and if we’re excluding a portion of our community, at the end of the day, everybody suffers, and there are worse health outcomes. By being inclusive, everybody thrives.”
Another example Vazquez talked about is SWMC’s work through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were truly a leader in trying to provide inclusivity and educating all of our community,” she said. “When the pandemic first started, there was not a lot of information in other languages, and we worked with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to get that information translated into multiple languages so we could educate everybody. We also did a huge campaign of education on the vaccines, and the outcome was that Kansas had more equity and vaccine distribution than bigger states such as Colorado. That’s because we had more inclusion and engagement with our diverse population. We were including everybody at the table.”
The KLCN Latino Leadership Luncheon is scheduled to take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the Boot Hill Conference Center at 4100 W. Comanche Street in Dodge City.
RSVP at www.bit.ly/3XLTQXE. Registration is required to attend, and the event is free and open to the public. For more information, e-mail
