Building a Critical Workforce in Community Health Workers
The Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development (Center) was recently awarded a $3 million-dollar HRSA grant to develop the Community Health Worker Training Program. This grant, a partnership with the newly created UM Office of Health and Partnership (OHRP) and the UM School of Public Health and Community Health Sciences, meets the Center’s organizational commitment to address the workforce crisis in Montana.
Community health workers (CHW) are a flexible and valuable contribution to the workforce, and the Community Health Worker Training Program will bolster this growing workforce to directly address health disparities, improve access to social and healthcare and increase community capacity. A CHW is defined by the American Public Health Association as " 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” (Community Health Workers (apha.org)). CHWs are a flexible workforce in that they can serve in a variety of roles including outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy, activities that may look similar to roles that already exist within local public health, healthcare and behavioral health providers, and community-based organizations.
“Our state is facing both a public health and healthcare worker shortage. Community Health Workers are an underutilized resource that can improve health outcomes across our state in frontier, Tribal and urban settings by supporting community and clinic linkages and addressing critical social determinants of health. CHWs are a critical part of the solution to address the workforce crisis in Montana”
— Mackenzie Petersen, CHW Project Director
The Center will develop foundational and advanced CHW eLearning trainings in partnership with external stakeholders and subject matter experts. In collaboration with the Healthcare Career Advancement Program, the Center will work with interested organizations to facilitate apprenticeships for Community Health Workers, an approach to support and sustain the workforce. Stipends for participation will be provided to CHW.
Local public health, community-based organizations, healthcare organizations and social service providers interested in hiring CHWs or upskilling and retaining current staff that perform similar activities and are welcome to contact the Project Director, Mackenzie Petersen, at [email protected]. We welcome direct feedback from the community and CHWs. We will be working with partner organizations to solicit CHW feedback. If you are a CHW and are interested in learning more, please reach out to Mackenzie.
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