The Community Health Worker (CHW) Project at Hunter College is supporting the development of an independent sustainable organization of CHWs. The CHW organization maintains contact lists, provides networking opportunities, holds conferences, promotes CHW employment, and informs policy and practice issues affecting the career. This presentation will include discussion of the challenges faced, partnerships developed and hurdles overcome in developing this organization.
In New York City, dramatic, rapid and often chaotic changes in entitlement programs coupled with a dramatically increasing immigrant population and large numbers of uninsured children have created new barriers to access for New York’s poor, working-poor and immigrant communities. Community Health Workers are playing a vital role in New York City's efforts to reach these communities whose access to health services is limited by socio-economic, linguistic and cultural barriers. As the CHW field develops and expands, policy and practice issues are being debated locally and nationally, including: the role of CHWs as members of the health care team; qualifications; certification; reimbursement for services; and other models of sustainable funding. Without an effective forum for CHW involvement, these discussions are held in the absence of the CHWs themselves. This CHW organization provides a vehicle for the voices of CHWs to be heard.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to recognize barriers to effective CHW advocacy, discuss innovative strategies for organizing CHWs, and apply lessons learned to their own efforts.
Keywords: Advocacy, Networking
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Hunter College Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.