Spurred by local organizing groups in Houston, El Paso, San Antonio and the Brownsville-McAllen area (Lower Rio Grande Valley), committees are working toward Texas’s first statewide CHW network. There was great enthusiasm for action in Houston’s fourth annual local CHW conference (April 9), and statewide conference calls have been held. The groups are urging a statewide CHW conference within the next year.

At the April 9 Houston conference, the Texas Public Health Association was approached about assisting the new statewide organization to get started. TPHA has agreed to sit down with CHW network leaders to see what kind of assistance would be most useful.

State public health associations have been valued supporters of CHW networks in Massachusetts, Oregon and elsewhere.  If you have not been in contact with your State Public Health Association, you may want to reach out to them.  For links to all of these groups, go to the APHA website: http://www.apha.org/membergroups.