Project Director: Katie Davis Email Address: kdavis5@metrohealth.org Address: 2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland, OH 44109 Funds Requested: $2,996,917 Preference: 1 and 2 We propose to address and promote the usage of high value health services, improve preventive care rates, promote health equity, and develop improved systems of care for managing chronic health conditions through a regional effort between several Northeast Ohio Health Systems, FQHCs, regional community health worker (CHW) training programs, and Pathway Community HUBs, and other county and public health organizations. The overall goal of this collaborative effort is to recruit, train, and employee CHWs in urban and rural underserved communities, increasing diversity in the public health workforce.. This proposal has 3 goals: Goal 1: Expand the public health workforce by training new and existing CHWs and HSWs with specialized training and financial support. We will recruit and train a minimum of 240 trainees over three years. Goal 2: Enhance, expand and adapt existing training programs and courses to promote health equity and increase the skills of existing CHWs/HSWs and trainees to respond to public health needs and emergencies with an emphasis on the 10 roles of a CHW from the CHW Core Consensus Project. Goal 3: Increase employment readiness by partnering with the CHWCBC to provide field placements and apprenticeship programs that will allow CHWS to support the needs of the populations they represent and provide them with employment opportunities that offer competitive salaries and benefits. Methods: We will form an Advisory Board of health systems partners, CHW training programs, Pathway HUBs, and other stakeholders to review and advise on all grant activities. Integral to the organizational structure and the success of this project is the Pathways HUB Team. This team will have bidirectional communication with all other teams in our organizational struct
ure. The HUB teams will conduct CHW forums to disseminate information and share best practices and to update teams about changing community needs and suggested training program enhancements. Goal 1: To expand the public health workforce, health systems will provide paid apprenticeship programs for trainees and support for other expenses. The health systems will collaborate with the HUBs and our academic partners to develop and implement a targeted recruitment strategy which will include social media campaign, target mailings, and recruitment from community organizations. Goal 2: We will identify, prioritize and develop additional training opportunities for current CHWs and those in training programs. We will adapt our existing interprofessional and public health training, clinical training, and HUB training to meet to training needs of existing CHW/HSWs. We will also provide training for clinical teams on how to effectively integrate CHWs into their teams. Goal 3: We will collaborate with the HUBs to identify other community partners for field placements. We will work with the HUBs and our academic partners to recruit and facilitate experiential training sites for becoming registered apprenticeship programs and explore options for wraparound services and flexible benefit programs. Our Data and evaluation team will, in addition to collecting required project metrics, will evaluate the expanded training programs and initiatives around wraparound and flexible benefits. The goals of this proposal will advance health equity in our community and improve diversity in the public health workforce.