Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Community Health Worker Training Program - APPLICANT: El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center, Inc. 839 W. Congress Street, Tucson, Arizona 85745 PROJECT DIRECTOR: Nancy Johnson, PhD, RN Phone: (520) 309-2012; nancyj@elrio.org Website: http://www.elrio.org AMOUNT OF CHWTP Funding Requested: $2,400,687.10 El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center, Inc. (dba El Rio, El Rio Health) as the lead agency, and Pima Community College (PCC), as a subcontractor, plan to develop and implement a Community Health Worker Training Program (CHWTP) in Pima County, Arizona. Pima County is the 2nd largest county in Arizona by population (1.04 million residents), located in the southernmost part of the state bordering Mexico, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe lands. According to the CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), Pima County Arizona has an overall SVI Score of 0.88, indicating a HIGH level of vulnerability. Each of the four (4) themes scored by the SVI are over 0.50 for Pima County: 0.6061 Socioeconomic Status; 0.5689 Household Composition & Disability; 0.9277 Minority Status & Language; and 0.9825 Housing Type & Transportation. Given the needs in our community and the workforce shortage for CHW, the goals of our proposed CHW Training Program (CHWTP) in partnership with Pima Community College (PCC) include the following: • Expand the public health workforce by training new and existing CHWs and health support workers with specialized training and financial support to offset expenses that would impede success in training. The Program’s goal is to provide training so that 75% of participants become newly credentialed CHWs and health support workers (180 trainees total). • Extend and upskill the public health workforce by developing new or enhancing existing curriculums to increase the skills and competencies of existing CHWs and health s upport workers (50 trainees total). • Increase CHW and health support worker employment readiness through field placements and apprenticeships developed in collaboration with a network of partnerships that will enable trainees to respond to and support essential public health services and provide them with employment opportunities (46 apprentices total). • Advance health equity and support for underserved communities by increasing the number of CHWs and health support workers that are employed as integral members of integrated care teams that use their expanded skills to reduce health disparities. The total number of unduplicated individuals to be served by this CHWTP proposal is 230 over the course of the 3-year project period. Recruitment of new CHW trainees will occur in all areas of our community identified as underserved and/or vulnerable. Curriculum taught at PCC in the workforce development arena addresses communication skills, diversity, SDOH, policy, community assessment, basic preventive screenings, vulnerable populations, some chronic diseases, and health literacy. PCC plans to expand on this and will develop a CHW certificate program with a curriculum focused on holistic training incorporating the following: all required competencies including team-based care, digital literacy, cultural competencies, health equity and SDOH, public health principles including pandemic response and COVID-related outreach and vaccine hesitancy, communication and critical thinking and job-readiness skills. Both partners have proven experiences in collaborating with and convening employer driven stakeholder groups and will work to create additional new apprenticeship sites with the four regional FQHC, the local community food bank, PCHD, and various behavioral health, housing, and social service agencies serving vulnerable and underserved populations. The project will be providing quarterly updates to a newly created Community Council regarding progress with recruitm ent, additional training sites, t
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).