Community Health Worker Collaborative

CHW Education, Training & Community Advocacy

Click here to visit the PA CHW Collaborative website or continue reading below

Who and what is a Community Health Worker?

A Community Health Worker is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member or has a particularly good understanding of the community served. A CHW serves as a liaison between healthcare and social services and the community to facilitate access to services, to improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery, and through these means work to improve the health and wellbeing of members of the community in which they (often live) and work. (CDC)

CHWs might be known by other names, such as promotores de salud, coaches, lay health advisors, community health representatives, peer mentors, or peer navigators.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) address this root cause by bridging gaps in access, establishing and maintaining connections to preventative medical and dental care, and addressing the stigma that pervades mental health care particularly among vulnerable populations. All of this rests upon the trust a CHW develops within the community.

CHW training classes

The Pennsylvania Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) are an accredited Community Health Worker training organization through the Pennsylvania Certification Board. AHEC regions offer a 100-hour training program designed to provide the core competencies needed for work in community-based and inpatient settings. This training also provides comprehensive information about accessing healthcare and other social/community resources which are specific to the region in the training location site.

Each 100 hour course is typically completed within two months. To learn more about classes or register for classes being held by Southwest PA AHEC, the areas of study, cost of classes and how to become certified as a CHW in Pennsylvania visit the statewide PA CHW Collaborative website.

how did this project come about?

Currently the Roots of Health CHW Collaborative is funded through the gracious support of the Henry L. Hillman Foundation and their Healthy Allegheny Challenge. Over the next three years we will be training at least 40 CHWs, assisting each with state certification, developing a network of regional collaborative partners who will hire trained CHWs at their site, and fostering a platform of support for CHWs working in the field. Collaborative partners include community health centers, community-focused organizations, and federally qualified health centers in areas experiencing health disparities.

While establishing the training program and collaborative network in the Southwest PA region, we are also aiming to help to bring sustainability to the position of Community Health Worker through legislative advocacy and working with insurers to make CHW services reimbursable.

Collaborative Partners

Partners in the collaborative include community health centers, community focused organization, and federally qualified health centers. A full list of collaborative partners can be found here: PA CHW Collaborative Partners

If you are with a community organization or health care center and are interested in training and/or hiring community health workers, please contact:

Mike Bowersox (mbowersox@southwestahec.org) or

Dr. Lynne Williams (lwilliams@southwestahec.org).