Document Library

Presentation from the American Red Cross on Advocating for CHWs. Advocacy is a team sport, but many sports have members that play different positions. You don’t need to be a policy analyst or a
lobbyist to contribute. Public support, from the district they serve, can make a difference to an elected official.

The Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance and the Proof Alliance webinar on the basics of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) from the September Community Health Worker Learning Circle Meeting.

Learn the lifelong health benefits, how to help Moms overcome difficulties getting started and gain cultural perspectives on the importance of breastfeeding.

Learn the lifelong health benefits, how to help Moms overcome difficulties getting started and gain cultural perspectives on the importance of breastfeeding.

The role of breastfeeding in families and culture, breastfeeding and mental health and during emergencies, the role of the CHW in empowering women to breastfeed.

What does it take to breastfeed while returing to work or school? How do CHWs empower women to advocate for themselves to continue
breastfeeding? Pumping and equipment how tos. Cultural perspectives and resources.

This report is a road map to better access and outcomes in oral health. It synthesizes findings from a nine-month project conducted by the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance to examine gaps in oral health services and identify opportunities to broaden adoption of the CHW role in order to improve oral health access, increase prevention education and achieve improved outcomes for populations facing disparities.

In 2014 the CDC and the State of Minnesota made a significant investment in Community Health Worker (CHW) strategies in local public health to reduce and prevent prediabetes and hypertension in four areas of Minnesota. This report documents the details and results of that investment. Known as the Community Wellness Grant (CWG), this project allowed local public health to invest in personnel, supervision, and build infrastructure to support CHWs. The results are impressive and show the potential and impact of CHWs far beyond diabetes and hypertension. The lessons learned and recommendations will help local public health departments long after the end of the grant. Most importantly, the report documents the critical roles of CHWs as an important component of local public health departments and their work to improve the health of all, including the importance of addressing the social determinants of health (SDH).

Standing orders are a vehicle to empower trained and supervised Community Health Workers (CHWs) to provide specific services to specific patient populations within
organizational guidelines as members of care teams. Examples include one-to-one patient self-management services related to prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension in
the clinic, home and community. Several Minnesota CHW employers have developed and implemented CHW standing orders or similar vehicles, some with support under the Minnesota Department of Health’s CDC-funded Community Wellness Grant (CWG).

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are trusted, knowledgeable frontline health personnel who typically come from the communities they serve. As a result of their deep knowledge and understanding of their communities, CHWs are uniquely equipped to bridge barriers related to culture, race, language, literacy, socioeconomic status and other factors; expand access to coverage and care; and improve health outcomes.

This Toolkit focuses on Community Health Workers (CHWs). Its purpose is to provide employers and prospective employers with practical guidance for organizational and practice integration of CHWs, and to understand the education and competencies of CHWs.

Community health workers (CHWs) have a unique role to play in public health departments as frontline ambassadors and connections to communities that they serve. We created this toolkit to assist local health departments (LHDs)
in creating sustainable recruitment and retention strategies to CHWs. To form this toolkit, we conducted searches
of peer-reviewed literature and community-based resources on terms relevant to CHWs, with an emphasis on
CHWs working in public health settings. We condensed the search results into a toolkit of findings with trends
and best practices, example programs and resources, and specific recommendations for LHDs. Our findings and recommendations focus on integration of CHWs into local health departments, attracting diverse candidates and the hiring process, skills and associated equitable compensation, and retention strategies for building out this critical workforce.

You are eligible to be an apprentice at a registered apprenticeship site if you are a CHW Certificate holder, or if you are an active CHW Certificate Program student at one of the accredited Minnesota schools who offer the certificate program.

Apprenticeship provides structured on-the-job training for CHWs. It is a path to promote successful onboarding and training. Employers can develop a training plan to include related technical instruction and safety training, creating a robust and valuable training experience for the CHW apprentice. This and other apprenticeship components are required by MN Department of Labor and Industry. Employers receive statewide and nationwide recognition for their CHW apprenticeship program.

A review of CHW utilization, lessons learned, and future outlook from select organizations employing CHWs in Minnesota.

In February 2018 the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance offered an informational workshop and roundtable to increase the knowledge of healthy
housing providers about CHW roles and benefits, to spotlight successful CHW models, and to increase understanding of barriers and opportunities for CHW
integration. The Alliance also offered a one-day training event for CHWs in partnership with Sustainable Resources Center to build healthy housing knowledge and skills for home visiting.

Minnesota Health Care Programs manual for providers, created and maintained by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

This webinar was presented by the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance. In this webinar, Joy Rivera of the American Indian Cancer Foundation brings attention to multi-cultural perspectives including American Indian cancer burdens and solutions, strategies and best practices for CHWs and resources to educate others about Cancer. CHWs play an essential role in educating community members about cancer.

The nation’s largest searchable collection of documents on policies around CHWs.

One page summary document, reviewed for accuracy by several Minnesota experts in Children’s Mental Health and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Published research from IMPaCT Care Inc. As a CHW national center of excellence, we pioneered the concept of evidenced-based programs through leading-edge research, and are always conducting new, innovative studies on effective best practices. Our first randomized control trial, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2014, focused on triple-aim improvements of our IMPaCT program for hospitalized patients. In August of 2017, our second RCT, published in AJPH, showed improvements in hospital admissions, chronic disease control, and mental health for patients with chronic health conditions. Our third multi-site RCT, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2018 demonstrated improved health, quality and reduced hospital days across multiple outpatient sites. In 2019 we published a seminal cost-effectiveness paper in Health Affairs demonstrating that IMPaCT returns an annual $2.47 for every dollar invested by Medicaid. The details of these studies, and other results, may be found in this section.

PPT Presentation: The Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance and the Proof Alliance webinar on the basics of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) from the September Community Health Worker Learning Circle Meeting.

This toolkit compiles promising practices and resources to support rural communities seeking to develop CHW programs. CHWs are public health or social service workers who are close to and serve members of the community by helping them to adopt healthy behaviors. They may also be known as community health representatives, lay health workers, promotoras, peer health promoters, and peer health educators. CHWs play many important roles in rural communities.

A toolkit developed for the American Cancer Society – Midwest division by Wilder Research. The main goal of this economic analysis is to place the economic outcomes generated by
CHWs in a cost benefit framework for defensibly measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) in this type of interventions. We consider the costs and benefits from the perspective
of participants, taxpayers, and programs. The ROI estimates reflect the net benefits for the whole society.

The State of the Community Health Worker Field in Minnesota report provides a descriptive overview of the field within the broader context of national trends and developments. Commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the report is prepared by the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance (the Alliance) as a resource for community health workers (CHWs), CHW employers and educators, policymakers, payors, and others interested in the progress, opportunities, challenges, and next stage work associated with the advancement of the CHW workforce and its benefits to Minnesota’s diverse communities. The report reflects the input from key informant interviews with state and national CHW experts from the CHW field, public health, education, and human services.

CHWs can play a big role in addressing trauma in their clients and communities. This webinar covers trauma responses, strategies and best practices for CHWs and resources to educate others about trauma. Strategies for building individual capacity for healing and self-care for CHWs working with trauma will also be covered. Healing strategies for specific communities will be covered: African American, American Indian and Refugee.

Trauma overwhelms a person and impacts function and learning. It is connected to all the chronic illnesses CHWs see their clients. This webinar addresses trauma triggers, the chronic nature of trauma, biological effects and impacts on specific communities: African American, American Indian and Refugee.

This presentation provides information about high blood pressure – what it is, why you should care, risk factors, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, and how to get help.