Increasing Access to Community Health Worker Resources for the New England Region and Beyond

The COVID-19 Pandemic has underscored the value of community health workers (CHWs) in providing healthcare to underserved communities in the United States and across the globe. CHW Central is the preeminent web-based community of practice and knowledge management resources for and about CHWs. Our work increases access to the most recent evidence on community health worker programs, metrics, and tools. With a Health Information Outreach Grant from NNLM, we will expand the reach and use of the latest CHW evidence, make training resources more easily accessible and improve efficiencies in CHW training curricula development by enabling organizations to build on, rather than duplicate, the work of others. Our grant activities will respond to the needs of CHW Central’s audience in the US and globally, including specific information and training needs on chronic illnesses, such as hypertension and diabetes, substance use disorders, cancer and COVID-19 for our New England CHW partners: The CHW Association of Rhode Island, Vermont Department of Health Services and CHW Steering Committee, The Center for Health Impact in Massachusetts, the North Country Health Consortium of New Hampshire, Minority Health Program in Portland, Maine (un signed partner) and the Connecticut CHW Association. This project has three goals: 1. Synthesize CHW research from 2021 into a concise Annual State of the Evidence report, with a pullout report for New England partners on regional research results. 2. Develop a CHW Training Resource Database, linked to MedlinePlus where possible, and begin populating the database with resources on priority topics for our New England regional partners. 3. Improve knowledge of the latest evidence and skills to navigate the CHW Central resource and training databases by conducting a virtual workshop with CHWs and program managers in New England.