Community health worker training program - better health together (BHT), in partnership with eastern washington university (EWU), community colleges of spokane, and the washington state department…

Community health worker training program - better health together (BHT), in partnership with eastern washington university (EWU), community colleges of spokane, and the washington state department of health (WA DOH), is requesting $3,000,000 in funding over the three-year performance period. The purpose of this program is to expand the public health workforce through the training of new community health workers (chws) and health support workers and to extend their knowledge and skills. BHT has the relationships with the delivery partners that provide the CHW training as well as the ability to pull upon our network organizations needed to do this work. This includes the proposal partners listed as well as organizations that are led by and work effectively with under-resourced populations. We will engage with these partners for recruitment, experiential training, on-the-job training, apprenticeship, field placement, and employment opportunities. Participating partners include latinos EN spokane, american indian community center, lake roosevelt community health, pica, rural resources, spokane public schools, columbia base health association, and the carl maxey center. Our program will reach populations in our region with the highest risk for health disparities and low health literacy in adams and ferry counties, and spokane residents living in west central, north central, central, and east central neighborhoods. Within these geographic locations, BHT will focus on populations at the highest risk for health disparities and low health literacy; namely black, marshallese, latinx, american indian (both urban and rural), and LGBTQA2S+. We will achieve this by: supporting bipoc and other impacted communities by establishing a strong recruitment and placement network with a focus on belonging. Advancing a whole-person care perspective by addressing and reducing the participants' social determinants of health barriers and needs as part of program participation. Optimizing the use of resources and increasing access to care by financially supporting the creation of opportunities for chws in new settings. Expanding employment opportunities and access to care by creating pathways and access to additional health services training and career trajectories. We will utilize the following approaches to achieve success: approach 1: convene a program steering committee. BHT will engage a group of healthcare organizations, community-based organizations, and chws to form a steering committee. The committee will help BHT to guide this work and ensure the project is accountable to impacted communities and effective in filling program needs and gaps. Approach 2: develop a community-driven hub & spoke model. BHT will adopt a community-driven "hub and spoke" model to provide resources, training, TA, coaching, mentorship, peer advocacy, and support by trusted organizations and leaders who are trusted advocates. Approach 3: include an outreach specialist role on the program team. This role will be dedicated specifically to meeting the objectives, expectations, and performance measures including recruiting culturally specific chws. This role will be critical in ensuring that we meet our recruitment goals for our target trainee population. Approach 4: foster a community of belonging. An approach to increase equity and retention for our program will be to foster a sense of belonging and community among participating chws. We will use the eastern washington community health worker network as a launching point to build our community of belonging to provide a space where they can build connections and learn from one another. Approach 5: provide a variety of options and flexibility. BHT will utilize a whole-person perspective as we develop our program offerings. As such, we will strive to introduce variety and flexibility into the options we offer our trainees for engagement, monetary support, wrap-around services, experiential training sites, and upski