Community Health Worker (CHW Core)

This course is designed to provide core competencies for Community Health Worker’s (CHWs). It includes key concepts of public health, outreach, advocacy, community and individual assessment, social determinants of health, health education, navigating insurance, stages of behavior change, service coordination and more. The 13-week core course consists of 48 hours of a blend of live online and asynchronous training

The CHW (English) hybrid core course (Section 1) will meet live in an on-line web-based classroom beginning January 14th, from 6:00 - 9:00 PM (MST). The class will meet in the live online classroom three times during the thirteen weeks; 1/14, 2/25, and 3/31.  During weeks 2-6, 8-12, students will be working asynchronous (on their own/self-paced). Student are also required to choose from 20+ available asynchronous (self-paced) Health Specific Modules and complete five by end of class. Students will be contacted before the first class with instructions to start the course and join the live session. A certificate will be available upon completion and successful submission of all course work.

The CHW (Spanish) hybrid core course (Section 2) will meet live in an on-line web-based classroom beginning March 3rd, from 6:00 - 9:00 PM (MST). The class will meet in the live online classroom three times during the thirteen weeks; 3/3, */*, and */*.  During weeks 2-6, 8-12, students will be working asynchronous (on their own/self-paced). Student are also required to choose from 20+ available asynchronous (self-paced) Health Specific Modules and complete five by end of class. Students will be contacted before the first class with instructions to start the course and join the live session. A certificate will be available upon completion and successful submission of all course work.

Community health workers are a vital component of the state and national public health and health care workforce. "Community Health Worker" is an umbrella term for a number of different job titles, including community health advocates, outreach educators, peer leaders, promotores de salud, doulas, and patient navigators. For many decades, CHWs have made significant contributions to community-based health promotion, disease prevention and maternal child health support. They have also improved the rate of health insurance coverage for underserved communities and individuals. CHWs improve access to and increase utilization of primary health care, reduce costs of care, improve quality of care, and reduce health disparities.

For more information about this training curriculum, contact Suzanne Shemwell at Idaho State University-Meridian, shemsuza@isu.edu or call (208) 373-1764.

Idaho State University, in collaboration with the Idaho Statewide Healthcare Innovation Plan (SHIP) project originally developed this training. ISU is continuing to offer this training for those interested in becoming Community Health Workers.  Interested applicants are not required to apply and become students at ISU in order to take the training.