The Community Health Workers, Promotoras, and Representatives (CHW/P/R) Coalition
The CHW/P/R Coalition is a statewide grassroots coalition that is comprised of CHW/P/R individuals and community-based organizations that serve diverse communities including BIPOC, immigrant, refugee, LGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities, and other interested stakeholders from across the state. The coalition is dedicated to ensuring that the needs of California’s diverse CHW/P/R workforce are addressed and members are able to participate actively in policymaking processes related to the future of their workforce. The coalition collaborates together to ensure policies that impact CHW/P/R are rooted in CHW/P/R voice, strengthen health care quality and lead to more equitable health outcomes, are financially sustainable, prioritize workforce diversity, and value community cultural wealth. The coalition shall hold meetings on a regular basis to discuss and raise awareness of emerging CHW/P/R policies, practices and proposals, advocacy and mobilization opportunities impacting California’s diverse CHW/P/R workforce.
Upcoming Events and Meetings:
We would like to invite you to the following events, meetings, and opportunities! You will receive a zoom link and a calendar invite as soon as you register and select one of the following events:
Please stay tuned for upcoming events and trainings in Fall 2023.
Please note: We will NOT ask you to provide any confidential information such as financial and/or tax information or payment of any kind. If you think someone fraudulently represented themselves as part of this coalition, please contact us right away.
Our Steering Committee:
The CHW/P/R policy coalition is comprised of seven lead entities: California Consortium for Urban Indian Health (CCUIH), the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Latino Coalition for Healthy California, The Children’s Partnership, Transitions Clinic Network, Roots Community Health Center, and Visión y Compromiso.
Goal and Objectives:
The coalition centers CHW/P/Rs as the antiracist strategy to achieve our vision of holistic community wellness–the harmonizing of mind, body, and spirit [1]. Our goal is that California will have a sustainable, diverse, coordinated, and impactful coalition of Community Health Workers, Promotoras, community members, advocates and stakeholders. We will reach our goal through our three main objectives:
- Convene CHW/P/Rs and advocates for CHW/P/Rs from diverse communities across the state
- Develop a shared policy agenda to advance the integration and sustainability of CHW/P/Rs
- Engage stakeholders in public education and policy advocacy
[1] Based on Community Responsive Wellness, The Promotor Model: A Model for Building Healthy Communities, and Healing Centered Engagement
Coalition Structure
The Coalition is made up of 3 Committees to achieve community wellness by ensuring there are diverse CHW/P/Rs who are confident to lead their workforce: CHW/P Voice, Public Education, and Policy Committees.
| Committee | CHW/P Voice | Policy Committee | Public Education Committee |
| Led By | Visión y Compromiso | Latino Coalition for a Healthy California | The Children’s Partnership |
| About | Builds a space with diverse CHW/Ps who are confident to lead and make decisions on the CHW/P Workforce. Meets Objectives #1: Convene CHW/Ps and advocates from diverse communities across the state | Researches and develops policy initiatives related to the key CHW topics. Meets Objective #2: develop a shared policy agenda | Serves as a megaphone for CHW-related activity, amplifying opportunities to inform Coalition partners and the public about key opportunities to support CHWs, including educational webinars, community events, and news stories. Meets Objective #3: Engage stakeholders in public education and advocacy |
| Key Activities | Hosts Quarterly virtual meetings and training for CHW/Ps Hosts 2 webinars in Spanish focused on CHW/Ps Host 2-3 regional convenings across the state with racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse CHW/Ps | Conducts policy research and analysis in key areas such as workforce development best practices, health systems integration, and sustainability, and other areas that arise from the policy agenda development process) Systematically Reporting Policy Ideas and Further Developing those Policies Develops Policy Agenda 2023 and 2024 | Conducts basic communications activities to disseminate the policy agenda and share updates about the coalition including email listserv alerts and social media posts Arranges policy maker education visits to share the policy agenda |
Membership/Interested in learning more?
All interested CHW/P/Rs are invited to become members of our policy coalition. Join our coalition listserv to join a committee, stay connected on different coalition meetings and events and up-to-date on California CHW/P/R policies.
Join Here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DKGVPDK
Please note: We will NOT ask you to provide any confidential information such as financial and/or tax information or payment of any kind. If you think someone fraudulently represented themselves as part of this coalition, please contact us right away.
The CHW/P/R Coalition’s Key Principles
The CHW/P/R Coalition aims to ensure that California’s policies and services center CHW/P/R values and encourage the participation of culturally and linguistically diverse, community-based CHW/P/Rs who carry with them a wealth of social, cultural and community knowledge and expertise. To that end, below are some principles we feel are important to integrate into CHW/P/R workforce policies in California:
Strengthen Health care quality and lead to more equitable health outcomes
We will work to ensure CHW/P/R services and supports provided by trusted messengers that come from the communities they serve, improve patient satisfaction and agency in their health by holistically addressing their mental, emotional, spiritual and physical needs. We will work to ensure CHW/P/Rs are adequately supported by a community transformation model that does not rigidly and medically define their role to just outreach and education, time-limit their activities, and restrict their funding. Rather, we will work to ensure CHW/P/Rs have an active role throughout healthcare delivery with the resources and networks to achieve upstream structural policy changes to advance health care quality and eliminate disparities.
Prioritize Workforce diversity
We will work to ensure CHW/P/R opportunities and roles are accessible to racially/ethnically diverse individuals and those with intersecting identities including LGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities; we will advance inclusionary hiring policies and practices while opposing exclusionary barriers to participation like costly certifications and training, language requirements, immigration status, or educational level and designed to attract and sustain a diverse workforce.
ensure financial stability
We will work to ensure the CHW/P/R workforce is a thriving workforce whose workers are paid fair wages for their essential services with growth opportunities and a financial package commensurate with the job demands, complexity, and number of hours, training and roles undertaken. This includes advocating for financing mechanisms that are designed to ensure CHW/P/Rs are widely adopted as a critical equity strategy by all sectors from health to aging to the environment, and by multiple payers including health plans, local health jurisdictions, health systems and providers. We will work to ensure CHW/P/R programs are able to start, grow, and maintain programming and benefits over time to effectively develop economic and community empowerment and eliminate health disparities.
value community cultural wealth
We will work to ensure that community health workers/Promotoras, who come from the communities they serve, are valued for the important social, cultural and community wealth they bring, their unique contributions, services and the community trust they engender. We will advance policies that center the voices of diverse CHW/P/Rs from historically marginalized communities, their aspirations, their languages and communication skills, their social resources and networks, and their wisdom, values, and stories. We will fight to ensure CHW/P/Rs have decision making powers and leadership roles in policies that impact this precious workforce.
In the News
- California Healthcare Foundation’s CHW/P Coalition blog: https://www.chcf.org/blog/its-time-build-new-opportunities-community-health-workers-promotores/
CHW/P/R Policy Updates
HCAI CHW/P/R Certificates & Requirements
HCAI Publishes Statewide Requirements for the CHW/P/R Certificate
On July 1, 2023, Department Health Access and Information (HCAI) published a Guidance Letter outlining the statewide requirements for the state-issued CHW/P/R Certificate, certificate renewal, and for the state-issued Specialty Certificate, as well as the requirements for recognizing the experience of existing CHW/P/Rs. The letter also provides statewide requirements for CHW/P/R training programs to become approved training programs. The HCAI CHW/P/R Certificate website will be available starting in 2024, which will support the application process and provide a list of HCAI-approved training programs.
- Guidance Letter
- Verification Form Examples
- Department of Health Care Services
- CHW/P/R Frequently Asked Questions
For more information, visit HCAI CHWPR Website
DHCS Medi-Cal Benefit
Medi-Cal Covers Services Provided by Community Health Workers/Promotores Effective: July 1, 2022
Starting July 2022, Medi-Cal beneficiaries can access critical services provided by trusted Community Health Workers/Promotores (CHW/P) with lived experience that provides a connection between the CHW/P and the community or population being served. These services can include assistance controlling and preventing chronic conditions like asthma or diabetes, managing mental or oral health conditions, as well as referrals for housing, nutrition, and other social needs.
The addition of CHW/P services is part of a new statewide initiative aimed at advancing health equity by improving access to basic health care services for all Medi-Cal beneficiaries. By reimbursing for services from trusted culturally and linguistically diverse CHW/Ps, California is taking important steps to help to ensure more people including racially, ethnically diverse, LGBTQ+, children and youth, and persons with disabilities, can access routine medical needs.
For more information, visit DHCS’ CHWPR Website
CA state budget
The California State Budget allocates $15M for FY 23-24 to recruit, train and certify CHWPRs with specialized training to work with populations such as justice involved, unhoused, older adults, or people with disabilities; Provides $57.5 M in FY 24-25 and 25-26 respectively for CHWPR Initiative Grants. The budget also includes an additional $10M allocation for the Promotoras de Salud Program.
For more information, visit ebudget
For CPEHN’s 2023 Budget Summary visit, Health Priorities for Our Communities
Resources
Partner chw/p/r breifs & reports
- Community Health Workers Advancing Child Health Equity | The Children’s Partnership
- Community Health Workers and Promotores: Investing in Change Agents for a Healthy California | Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
- Collection of CHWP Resources | California Health Care Foundation
- Community Health Workers and PromotoresCommunity Health Workers and Promotores Career Pathway Initiative | El Sol CHW/P Training Center
- Community Health Workers and Promotores Career Pathway Initiative
CHW/P/R medi-cal benefit resources
- Joint Recommendation Letters From CPEHN and CHW/P Partners
- CPEHN November All Network Meeting Presentation
- CPEHN February All Network Meeting Presentation
- CPEHN Crosswalk of CHW/P Final SPA and 2.18 Joint Recommendation Letter
- CA CHW/P/R Medi-Cal At A Glance Fact Sheet
Coalition event slides
- CHW/P Policy Coalition 10.18.22 Kickoff Presentation
- 11.16.22 CHWPR Voice Kickoff
- 11. 30.22 Public Education 1st Meeting
- 12.1. 22 Policy 1st Meeting
- 2.15.23 CHWPR Voice English Slides
- 2.15.23 CHWPR Voice Spanish Slides
- 3.15.23 Policy Roundtable HCAI, CBO, CHW/PRs
- 3.29.23 CHWPR Policy Agenda Drafting #1 Workforce Development & Integration
- 4.5.23 CHWPR Policy Agenda Drafting #2: Economic Equity & Equitable Access
- 4.19.23 Public Education Meeting
- 6.14.23 Unveiling the 2023 CHWPR Policy Agenda
- 6.22.23 Leveraging CHW/P/Rs, Doulas, Peer Support Specialists and Navigators as an Anti-Racist Strategy to Advance Health Equity
Webinar recordings available upon request.
Joint recommendation letters
Glossary of Terms
As defined by the Community Health Worker Section of the American Public Health Association:
- A Community Health Worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served. This trusting relationship enables the CHW to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.
- A CHW also builds individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy.
- For more information, click here.
- Characterized by servicio de corazon (service from the heart), promotores are natural leaders and the “go to” people in their neighborhoods. They share the ethnicity, language, cultural traditions, practices, socioeconomic status and life experiences of the communities they serve”
- For more information, visit Visión y Compromiso’s website
- CHRs are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of the community with a close understanding of the community, language, and traditions essential to the spectrum of Tribal community-oriented primary health care services.
- CHRs serve as a link between the clinical setting and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.
- They assist by increasing health knowledge of patients and communities through a broad range of activities such as transportation to health visits, outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support, and advocacy.
- For more information, visit Indian Health Services
§ 440.130 Diagnostic, screening, preventive, and rehabilitative services.
* * * * *
(c) Preventive services are services recommended by a physician or other licensed practitioner of the healing arts acting within the scope of authorized practice under State law to—
(1) Prevent disease, disability, and other health conditions or their progression;
(2) Prolong life; and
(3) Promote physical and mental health and efficiency.
42 CFR 440.130(c)