Community Health Workers and Promotores de Salud - California Health Care Foundation

Community Health Workers and Promotores de Salud
Community health workers and promotores de salud have long played a vital role in promoting health and well-being, particularly in communities historically not well served by the health care system. The need to expand this important workforce takes on new urgency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visit our CHW/P in Workforce in Medi-Cal Resource Center

Understanding California’s Community Health Worker/Promotor Workforce

A new series of reports aims to paint a more complete picture of the community health worker/ promoter workforce in California, as well as challenges and opportunities related to training and employment. Reports will be released during the fall of 2022 and winter of 2023.

Disaster Service Workers Step Up in Pandemic

January 7, 2022

Aisling Carroll

Homelessness & Health Care, Workforce, Behavioral Health

How local agencies expanded their assistance to Santa Clara County’s unhoused population in the COVID-19 era.

With Superheroes and Songs, El Sol’s Promotores Help Vaccinate Inland Empire

December 3, 2021

Workforce, Health Equity

Community health workers have devoted significant energy to disseminating information about the coronavirus and the vaccines that protect people from it.

Advancing California’s Community Health Worker & Promotor Workforce in Medi-Cal

This Resource Center offers information and tools designed to support managed care plans in integrating community health workers and promotores into their programs.

California Poised for Major Expansion of Community Health Workers

August 17, 2021

Workforce, Medi-Cal

The 2021–22 state budget establishes a community health worker benefit within Medi-Cal.

Community Health Workers and Peers Are Essential to Counties’ COVID-19 Response

February 16, 2021

Amanda Clarke, Megan Renfrew, Zoe So

CHWs and peers are making vital contributions to communities that have been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic.

Coronavirus Contact Tracers: Part Detective, Part Social Worker

August 24, 2020

Xenia Shih Bion

Stories That Caught Our Attention: Public health workers are trying to slow the spread of the virus while addressing critical social needs.

External Resource

Training and Supporting Community Health Workers and Promotores: Lessons for California and Other States

The Center for Health Care Strategies led a comprehensive scan of training and certification approaches for Community Health Workers and Promotores (CHW/P). This resulting report outlines a set of training and professional recognition considerations for sustaining a robust CHW/P workforce. While the report shares specific considerations for California, these lessons are also applicable in other states.

Could Community Health Workers and Promotores de Salud Help California Respond to COVID-19?

Workforce, Medi-Cal

Meet Tia Aida, a veteran community health worker in Chula Vista, California. She says the pandemic caused a surge in requests for her help.

Online Convening — Adapting to COVID-19: Preparing and Supporting Community Health Workers and Promotores

This online convening is for those supporting Community Health Workers and Promotores (CHW/Ps) in training and employment environments.

External Resource

Three Workforce Strategies To Help COVID Affected Communities

In this Health Affairs blog, Rishi Manchanda outlines three ways state and federal leaders can ramp up a community-based workforce to protect vulnerable communities and augment the efforts of hospitals and public health leaders in the fight against COVID-19.

External Resource

Recognizing and Sustaining the Value of Community Health Workers and Promotores

This brief from the Center for Health Care Strategies explores how community health workers and promotores (CHW/Ps) are currently contributing to the health care system both in California and around the country. It highlights examples of how CHW/P work is financed as well as emerging opportunities to scale and sustain that work within California.

Community Health Workers & Promotores in the Future of Medi-Cal

A project to enhance the capacity of Medi-Cal managed care plans and their partners to deploy community health worker and promotor programs that advance health equity.

Supporting the Nontraditional Workforce: Community Health Workers and Promotores

February 18, 2020

Workforce, Medi-Cal

More payers and providers are recognizing the essential role these workers play in supporting patients with complex medical and social needs.

‘Trust Our Patients So They Can Trust Us’

September 18, 2019

Xenia Shih Bion

At an Oakland clinic, patients who once lived on the streets are helping to improve care for the unsheltered.

How to Pay for It: Community Health Workers

Laura Hogan, Tracy Macdonald Mendez

Health Care Costs, Payment & Financing

The first in a series, this paper offers a menu of strategies for funding a community health worker in a Transitions Clinic.