A Community Health Worker Training Resource for Preventing Heart Disease and Stroke

A user-friendly curriculum that CHW can use in their training and also as a resource. Offers plain-language basic information and activities to increase skills in preventing heart disease and stroke. Also covers lifestyle-related issues and risk factors for stroke, heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and diabetes.

Best Practices for Integrating Peer Navigators into HIV Models of Care

A report by AIDS United. Presents lessons learned from three AIDS United peer navigation program initiatives: Positive Charge (2010-2014), Retention in Care (2012-2016), and the Access to Care Social Innovation Fund Initiative (2010-2015). Offers ways to successfully and efficiently integrate peer navigators to reach vulnerable HIV populations in America. Topics include: initial steps to begin/expand a peer navigation program (identify target populations, best practices checklist, protocols and procedures), strategies to implement and monitor the program (communication, training, documentation), and ways to address the sustainability of the program.

Community Health Workers Evidence-Based Models Toolbox

A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Human Resources and Services Administration, Office of Rural Health Policy. A guide for rural communities of CHW models and strategies that have been proven to work. Topics include: overview of the role of CHW; description of various CHW program models; CHW training approaches; implementation, sustainability, and evaluation of CHW programs; dissemination of CHW resources; and examples of rural CHW programs.

Promotores and the Chronic Care Model: An Organizational Assessment

An article from the Journal of Community Health Nursing. Provides an organizational assessment and analysis of the role of promotores (lay health workers) could offer to a system of federally-sponsored community health clinics along the U.S./Mexico border in which the Chronic Care Model (which delivers improved care for the chronically ill) is being used. Goal of a collaboration between promotores and the CCM would be to address cultural barriers to chronic illness care encountered by minority populations.

The Use of Peer Workers in Special Projects of National Significance Initiatives, 1993-2009

A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau, Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program. SPNS grantees are awarded funds to design, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies that encourage hard-to-reach populations living with HIV/AIDS to access and remain engaged in primary health care and support services. This report explores SPNS grantee experiences with peer models, in order to identify how peer models can best be employed. Topics include: barriers to care for HIV-positive medically underserved community, and the role and effectiveness of peers in improving health outcomes.

Outcome Effectiveness of Community Health Workers: An Integrative Literature Review

An article from Public Health Nursing. Reviews the databased literature on CHW effectiveness (increasing access to care, especially in underserved populations). Finds that the CHW role can be doomed by overly high expectations, lack of a clear focus, and lack of documentation. Recommends further research into CHW activities and target populations.