What is a Community Health Worker?

Community Health Workers provide direct services to communities. They fill many roles in our communities, such as case managers, outreach specialists, community organizers, peer workers, direct service workers, and health education specialists. In these roles, they provide services such as informal counseling, service coordination, health education, advocacy, cultural adaptations, system navigation, and social support.

CHWs use their existing relationships and connections to the community to partner with clients to support them in overcoming health disparities. They do so by addressing root causes of poor health such as a lack of housing, employment, finances, food, employment, and healthcare. 

We use the American Public Health Association definition of a Community Health
Worker:

“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 CHW 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.”

Our Work

At The Center, we are collaborating with stakeholders to empower, grow, and sustain this critical workforce in Montana. We are accomplishing this by

1. providing free accessible online training for new and existing CHWs to improve their skills,
2. hosting an advisory board to discuss community needs and formalize future funding opportunities to maintain the CHW workforce,
3. creating a CHW Committee to more formally standardize CHW work in Montana, and
4. creating a CHW documentary to highlight the existing work and value of CHWs in Montana.

Future Cohorts

April 2024 – Spring Cohort Schedule 

Registration is now closed, we hit our participant limit.

September 2024 – Fall Cohort Schedule

Registration opens on July 15th, 2024, and closes on August 9th, 2024.

If you are interested in the September 2024 session, you can get added to the waitlist, and we will send you a reminder a week before registration opens.

CHW Training Waitlist

 

We welcome your input. Please email Mackenzie Petersen for more information and to get monthly updates.

 

This program is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $2,930,656.00. with 0% financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.