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ORANGEBURG, S.C. – South Carolina State University’s new Community Health Workers (CHW) Training Program trained 42 people this spring and summer with a 100% pass rate for the state’s CHW Certification Exam.
The program focuses on recruiting, training, and enabling the next generation of minority CHWs to address health equity and disparity in rural communities along the Interstate-95 Corridor.
The first cohort training occurred during the Spring 2023 Semester, and the second cohort followed in Summer 2023.
These CHWs will contribute to diversifying the public health workforce, which is needed to effectively communicate health information to the target minority populations, especially Black people in rural South Carolina counties.
Utilizing CHWs who are trusted individuals and resemble the target population – those with the same race and background -- is beneficial and necessary to impact health equity.
Trainees consisted of college students from SC State, Benedict College, Voorhees College, and Denmark Technical College, as well as community members from across the state.
Trainees spent 80 hours in the classroom and another 80 hours of field experience, grounded in experiential learning opportunities and CHW core competencies. During field experiences, all trainees received hands-on training as a CHW through such partnering organizations as:
- Clemson Rural Health.
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Office of Rural Health - Family Solutions.
- The Samaritan House.
- Tri-County Health Network.
- Breathe Easy Tri-County Coalition.
- Growing C.O.B.
- South Carolina Legal Services.
- Richland County CASA.
- Sickle Cell Foundation.
- Serve and Connect.
- Hope Health.
- South Carolina Association of Community Action Partnerships Inc. (SCACAP).
- Medical Ministries.
Also, trainees gained experience at the SC State’s Health Equity Research and Training Center (HERT-C).
Dr. Audrey McCrary-Quarles serves as the director of the CHW Training Program. She is a professor of health education in the Health Sciences Department, an established Certified Health Education Specialist, a Certified Community Health Worker, and the SCSU Health Equity Research and Training Center Co-Director.
McCrary-Quarles has extensive experience working with students in career preparation and mentorship, developing health-related curricula, conducting training sessions, and planning and implementing community engagement and outreach through previous grant work. She strongly advocates promoting health and wellness among rural minority communities. Also, she serves as a CHW instructor.
Dr. Ashley Evans-Knowell is an associate professor of biology/bioengineering sciences and co-director of the HERT-C. Also, she serves as the co-director for the project and a CHW instructor.
She is an established health disparities researcher in SC State’s Department of Biological & Physical Sciences. She has extensive experience working with college students and the community through previous community grant activities, which include the COVID-19 vaccine grant to investigate hesitancy among Blacks. Knowell has a history of mentoring and training students and collaborating with community members to improve health outcomes.
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