Building the Pipeline of Peers and Community Health Workers in Health Centers Learning Collaborative
Learning Collaborative Call for Applications
Community Health Worker (CHW) programs provide opportunities to strengthen our understanding and connections for health centers and the vulnerable populations they serve. The skills and life experience that CHWs bring to the job can and will significantly impact health outcomes for the hardest to reach populations. Building a CHW program is the first step. Once established it is essential to nurture the supports to expand and sustain the staff and workers at the core of the program.
The National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC), MHP Salud, and Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) are launching a new HRSA sponsored learning collaborative for health centers interested in expanding and enhancing their CHW programs.
Building the Pipeline of Peers and Community Health Workers in Health Centers Learning Collaborative utilizes a shared learning and peer forum to exchange expertise and address challenges focused on recruiting and sustaining staff in your peer and community health worker program. Through a series of webinars and virtual discussions, the three HRSA technical assistance providers will combine their expertise with health centers and special vulnerable populations to equip health centers to maximize community health worker programs, address growing workforce needs, and establish health outcome metrics for individuals experiencing homelessness, and other vulnerable populations.
Benefits of this CHW Learning Collaborative A learning collaborative is a dynamic, virtual peer exchange that enables dialogue among stakeholders pursuing similar objectives to explore promising best practices, solve challenging problems and create new opportunities. Through a series of facilitated webinars, discussions and resource assignments – November to May - Health Centers with existing Community Health Worker Programs will benefit from the shared insights to focus on: • November 8, 2018 - Setting the Community Health Worker Program Foundation • January 17, 2019 - Understanding the Target Population • March 14, 2019 - Workforce Recruitment – targeting persons with lived experience • May 2, 2019 Community Health Worker Program Sustainability
The Building the Pipeline of Peers and Community Health Workers in Health Centers Learning Collaborative has two primary components:
Group Learning: Through a series of four virtual meetings/webinars, health centers will share program information, set goals for strengthening their programs, and strategize implementation steps.
Individualized Planning Services: Each Learning Collaborative session will include discussion and exercises that participants can adapt for their individual organization and community. Follow-up resources and consultation will be available from the three sponsor technical assistance organizations.
