AJPH Supplement Releases New Findings on the First Nationwide Community Health Worker Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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CDC’s CCR Initiative Success Makes the Case for More Investment

Community health workers promote community health and address inequities, guiding the nation toward a healthier future. Findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Community Health Workers (CHWs) for COVID Response and Resilient Communities (CCR) Initiative have been released in a new American Journal of Public Health supplement. Following one of the largest federal investments in CHWs in U.S. history, authors provide evidence for why continued long-term investment is crucial.

Not only did CCR fund CHW positions; it also invested in the infrastructure needed to build and sustain effective CHW programs by providing programmatic and evaluation technical assistance and training. In Pandemic Response to Enduring Resilience: Findings from a Nationwide Community Health Worker Initiative, researchers say the data sheds light on the importance of ongoing collaboration across federal, state and local agencies and organizations.

The supplement’s three Guest Editors emphasize the key findings and historic nature of the CCR program and evaluation. Victoria Adewumi, Community Health Worker Co-Director of the CHW Center for Research and Evaluation, and Doctoral Candidate at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that “during the pandemic, CHWs supported our communities through unimaginable challenges. Yet once the crisis has passed, our workforce is often left behind.”

“What our evaluation [of CCR] found, again and again, is that the programs able to respond fastest were the ones that already had trained community health workers and established community relationships in place. You cannot build that during an emergency. You build it before one,” says Mary-Ellen Brown, Associate Professor, School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin. 

Noelle Wiggins, Co-Director and Founder, CHW Center for Research and Evaluation, comments, “CHWs were embedded in leadership across the three training and technical assistance organizations. We were able to collect common evaluation measures developed by CHWs and longtime allies with a defined, nationwide sample and validate those indicators so they can be used in the future. And we were able to design a national evaluation using approaches that are consistent with the values and principles of the CHW profession.”

You can find the supplement here.

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The American Public Health Association champions optimal, equitable health and well-being for all. With our broad-based member community and 150-year perspective, we influence federal policy to improve the public’s health. Learn more at www.apha.org.

 The research presented in this supplement was supported by three cooperative agreements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the US Department of Health and Human Services: an award to Arizona State University (6 NU58DP007024-03-00) totaling $7,868,259; an award to the Washington State Department of Health under Notice of Funding Opportunity CDC-RFA-DP21-2110 totaling $4 million; and an award to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health (NU58DP007026) totaling $8,920,000. Data for this project were collected from August 2021 to August 2024. 

Funding for the publication of this supplemental issue in the American Journal of Public Health was provided by The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work; University at Buffalo School of Social Work; The University of Arizona, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Mexican American Studies; Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Public Health; University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute; and the University of South Carolina, The Center for Community Health Alignment at the Arnold School of Public Health. 

Note. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the US government.