Promoting Policy and Systems Change to Expand Employment of Community Health Workers (CHWs)

Course Description

This course is designed to provide state programs and other stakeholders with basic knowledge about Community Health Workers (CHWs), such as official definitions of CHWs, workforce development, and other topic areas. In addition, the course covers how states can become engaged in policy and systems change efforts to establish sustainability for the work of CHWs, including examples of states that have proven success in this arena.

The six-session course covers

• CHWs’ roles and functions
• Current status of the CHW occupation
• Areas of public policy affecting CHWs
• Credentialing CHWs
• Sustainable funding for CHW positions
• Examples of states successful in moving policy and systems change forward

The course sessions are self-paced. Completion time for each session is between 30–45 minutes. The user does not have to take each session in succession. At the conclusion of each session, there is a five-minute survey to assess your satisfaction.

Course Developers

This course was a collaborative effort between the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) and the REACH Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The primary author of this course is Carl Rush, MRP of Community Resources, LLC. The developers of the course are GEARS, Inc. and C² Technologies. The course is provided free of charge from the DHDSP web site.

Disclosure Statement

CDC, our planners, and our content experts disclose they have no financial interests or other relationships with the manufacturers of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services, or commercial supporters.

This course does not include any discussion of the unlabeled use of a product or a product under investigational use.

The CDC does not receive commercial support for this activity.

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