Community Health Workers 101 (CHWs N’ Action Webinar Series)

Description:

A community health worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served. This trusting relationship enables the worker to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. A CHW also builds individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support, and advocacy. In practice, CHW is an umbrella term and includes community health representatives, promotors, peers, and other workforce members who are frontline public health professionals that share life experience, trust, compassion, cultural and value alignment with the communities where they live and serve. CHWs are gaining recognition for the growing evidence that associates them with improved health outcomes. This orientation will explore why CHWs are an expanding profession and some of the benefits of their work.

Objectives:

• Define CHWs as a profession.
• Identify CHW roles and competencies according to the CHW Core Consensus (C3) Project.
• Describe the benefits of adding a CHW to a health and/or social care team.
• Distinguish how clinical and community CHWs may operate differently in practice and in scope
• Identify how clinical and community settings can collaborate with CHWs.

Target Audience:

Novice and Seasoned CHWs, Practice Administrators, Public Health Practitioners, CHW Supervisors, Health and Social Care Team Members, Public Health Team Members, Community and Clinically Integrated Networks, and others interested in and/or engaged in improving population health.