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Let's move the field forward together.

Discover the benefits of being part of a statewide CHW registry.

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Who We Are

The Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance (MNCHWA) is a statewide nonprofit partnership committed to advancing health equity.

The Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance (MNCHWA) is a statewide nonprofit partnership committed to advancing health equity. We work with our partners to reduce health disparities, achieve the Quadruple Aim and foster healthier communities. Learn more >

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CHWs in the Spotlight

Community Health Workers & Health Equity

CHWs are regarded as the health equity workforce by many leaders in healthcare and public health. But what exactly is health equity?

Health equity can be achieved through the removal of health inequities, which is similar but different from health disparities. Health disparities are when we see a difference in health outcomes between groups of individuals because of some identifier (race, gender, child parity, etc.). Health inequities point to this same difference, but identifies the root cause as a systematic oppression due to society’s current structure.

Examples of this systematic oppression may be sexism, racism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, etc. These differences in health outcomes, while seen at a person-level, are being created by society’s treatment of groups of people due to a specific identifier. In order to create health equity in our communities, we must remove these obstacles to health at the individual, environmental, social, and political levels.

Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care.