Health Outreach

According to the 2004-05 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the job outlook for community health workers is “projected to grow much faster than the average…ranking the occupation among the most rapidly growing.”  Entry level annual salary for community health workers is $23,000-25,000.

Eastern AHEC, Inc developed a Community Health Outreach Worker (CHOW) training program through extensive collaborative efforts with Three Rivers Community College, the Connecticut Primary Care Association, the Connecticut Department of Labor and many local agencies.* The training program is offered in the following capacities (non-credit classes are offered in Spanish and English).

1. CHOW Academic Certification Program of 27 credits offered through Quinebaug Valley Community College.  Staff of Eastern AHEC teaches the core competencies of community outreach class for 3 credits.
2. Core competencies of community health outreach and a practicum offered through the community college for continuing education    credits. Staff of Eastern AHEC teach to class for continuing education credits.
3. Core competencies of community health outreach and practice offered in the community by Eastern AHEC without academic credit.

The continuum of training reflects individual interest in the community and academic preparedness. For example, those who attend our college program are less likely to be bilingual and most likely to be Caucasian compared to those who attend the community based program. Those who take the community based classes without academic credit are likely to be bilingual, a recent immigrant, and/or are not academically preparedly or able to attend college for a variety of reasons. However, they are already known and respected in their communities as natural helpers.  Eastern AHEC does not take the position that one type of training is preferred over the other. Our aim is to provide both a traditional and non-traditional approach to training, qualifying community health workers with a set of standardized skills across workers to be applied within the expectations of health care delivery. 

Community Health Worker Definition
The Community Health Worker is a front-line public health worker who is a trusted member of the community being served, commonly engaged in direct outreach into low-income, underserved or ‘hard-to-reach’ communities.  The Community Health Worker is uniquely knowledgeable of individual, family and community needs, including cultural characteristics, behaviors and attitudes.  The Community Health Worker performs a unique intermediary or ‘bridging’ function by explaining the complexities of the system to help individuals and families understand and access services more readily, and communicating about individual and community cultures and needs to help the service delivery system improve access to higher-quality services.  The Community Health Worker builds individual and community capacity by increasing individual, family and community self-sufficiency and health knowledge, improving collaboration between service delivery agencies and the community, and influencing attitudes and practices through a range of activities such as community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy.