Who are Community Health Workers, and why are they important?

CHWs are community experts who are widely recognized for their role in providing culturally relevant care, relating to the people they are working with as peers, providing health education, and connecting community members to resources. CHWs have been around for more than 100 years in both health centers and community-based organizations. More recently, awareness of CHWs has increased, in part, because of their powerful role in supporting underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. CHWs are a critical part of California’s transformation of the Medi-Cal (Medicaid) system through CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal), which seeks to provide comprehensive, whole-person care and address social drivers of health outcomes.  

We are a proud sponsor and co-leader of the Community Health Worker Framework for Equitable Employment 

The CHW Framework for Equitable Employment is a resource that organizations can sign onto and use to help guide the development and iteration of their CHW programs. A team of CHWs and CHW employers across various sectors in Sonoma County developed this resource. The Framework identifies best practices and recommendations for CHWs:

Recruitment | Hiring | Training |Scope and role | Integration into the team | Pay and benefits | Ongoing professional development | Financial sustainability

Find out more and take the pledge here!

CHW Areas of Focus

At Aliados Health, we support our member health centers and their partner community-based organizations with CHW program implementation and strategy. We do this through:

  • Co-leading Park-It-Markets and resource fairs that bring together CHWs and a variety of community-based resources
  • Hosting CHW convenings and professional development opportunities
  • Advocating for sustainable funding to support CHW positions
  • Supporting the development and implementation of CHW core competency training, upskilling, and experiential learning opportunities
  • Participating in regional strategy work to advance and align the work of CHWs
  • Putting forward and highlighting best practices for CHW integration in healthcare settings
  • Supporting health centers and community-based organizations to align their CHW programs with CalAIM’s Enhanced Care Management and/or the CHW Medi-Cal benefit

Current Training Programs for Community Health Workers

The California Association of Community Health Workers maintains a list of CHW training programs, broken down by

Solano Connex (Touro University) offers a variety of trainings for individuals who want to become Mental Health Navigators: https://solanoconnex.org/#/get-informed

Employment Resources for Community Health Workers

The California Association of Community Health Workers and the Northern California Center for Well-Being send out monthly newsletters where they list open CHW positions. Please visit their websites to subscribe to their newsletters.

Subscribe to the CACHW newsletter: CHW~LINK Subscribe
Subscribe to the Center for Well-Being Newsletter: Newsletters | Santa Rosa, CA | Center for Well-Being