Center for Resilient Communities: Trauma-Informed Training, Resources, and Technical Assistance for Community Health Workers - The Center for Community Health and Resiliency (CCHAR) will provide national expertise for evidence-based trauma-informed practice and interventions for Community Health Workers (CHWs) providing services to communities of color, with a special emphasis on American Indian and Latinx populations of the Southwest, and also Black/African American communities which CHWs commonly serve. CHWs are a promising strategy for the delivery of health and mental health services, especially among Black, American Indian and Latinx populations. However, CHWs lack specific training around trauma assessment, prevention, and treatment. The goals of CCHAR are to: (1) Increase the capacity of CHWs who serve communities of color to provide trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches, interventions, and practices; (2) Decrease the negative mental health impacts of child, adolescent and family trauma for American Indian, Black/African American, and Latinx communities; and (3) Increase the resilient coping strategies of American Indian, Black/African American, and Latinx families during traumatic and difficult times by training CHWs in evidence-developed interventions that promote resiliency. By the end of Year 1, the Community Health Workers Trauma and Resiliency Toolkit (CHW-TR) will be developed, and will be virtually disseminated to at least 48 CHW organizations starting in Year 2. Each year in Years 2 through 5, 500 CHWs will receive training in the CHW-TR Toolkit, resulting in at least 2,500 CHWs trained by the end of Year 5. These CHWs will provide trauma screening and referral for at least 50 children in their local communities in Years 2-5, for a total of at least 25,000 children screened. In Years 1-5, 4 educational webinars with experts on topics related to the role and promise of CHWs addressing child trauma and traumatic stress through evidence-based practices will be developed, implemented, archived and disseminated to the 48 CHW organizations in the NACHW network. In Years 1-5, at least 50 CHWs will attend the virtual webinars live, for a total of 200 annually and 1000 over the life of the project. At least 250 CHWs will attend CCHARs specialized trainings programs at the NACHW annual conference; another 100 CHWs will attend a duplicate training virtually, for a total of 1,750. By the end of Year 5, at least 160 CHWs will be trained as Certified Teachers of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) through the Trauma Resource Institute. Of the 160 CHW CRM Certified Teachers, by the end of Year 5 they will have trained at least 20 other CHWs in their local community, for a total of 3,200 CHWs trained nationally. By the end of Year 2, the Community Health Worker Healing and Resiliency from Trauma (CHW-HART) certificate program will be developed and ready to launch. In Years 3-5, at least 3000 CHWs will have completed the CHW-HART certificate program (1000 per year in years 3-5) and will be competent in research-based, resiliency-informed promotive practices. Over 10,000 CHWs nationally will receive training and resources on trauma-informed and resiliency-promoting evidence-based interventions through CCHAR in the 5-year project timeframe.
