Community health worker training program - the illinois public health association (ipha), in collaboration with a robust network of partners, proposes to establish the illinois community health worker…

Community health worker training program - the illinois public health association (ipha), in collaboration with a robust network of partners, proposes to establish the illinois community health worker helpguidethrive program. This statewide initiative will recruit and equip community health workers for employment in a broad array of health care settings throughout illinois, with a focus on providing public health services in rural and underserved communities. The three-year project aims to achieve the following objectives: - align community health worker training curricula with the national core curriculum. - recruit and select a minimum of 240 individuals to enroll in generalized community health worker training, extended training in a specialty area, or registered apprenticeships. - 60% of trainees will be persons of color. - 40% of trainees will be from rural or medically underserved areas. - provide financial support in the form of $7,500 stipends to all eligible trainees. - offer regular continuing education opportunities; and - provide workforce readiness training, field placements, and employment placement services. The illinois public health association will charter five (5) task-specific statewide teams to provide expertise and guidance for curriculum development and alignment, targeted recruitment, implementation, data collection, continuous improvement efforts, and workforce development. Members of the project leadership team will include the principal investigator and project director, both of whom are ipha employees, and one high-level representative from each of the following organizations: illinois department of public health, illinois primary health care association, illinois critical access hospital network, illinois migrant council, howard brown health center, asian health services, illinois association of public health administrators, and illinois rural health association. Within the statewide infrastructure, the association will partner with community coll eges and community-based organizations in each region of focus to train community health workers. Other partners include public health and health care employers who are interested in integrating community health workers into their inter-professional teams. As trusted individuals in their communities, community health workers play important roles in engaging community members, providing health education, addressing the factors that create or exacerbate health inequities, and connecting persons with the services they need. As a result of implementing the helpguidethrive project, underserved communities in illinois will experience increased access to health care services.