St. Louis Community College Expansion of Community Health Worker Training Program ABSTRACT St. Louis Community College 3221 McKelvey Road Bridgeton, Missouri 63044 Project Director: Laurie Hawkins Contact Phone Number: 314-644-9288 Email address: lhawkins55@stlcc.edu Website: https://catalog.stlcc.edu/programs/accelerated-job-training/community-health-worker Brief Overview: St. Louis Community College (STLCC) will expand the Community Health Worker (CHW) program with additional cohorts offered annually to increase the number of available CHWs working in underserved communities in the St. Louis region. Community health will be improved with increased services and support that CHWs provide to benefit critical access to healthcare for individuals and families with unmet need. Specific objectives the project will accomplish include (1) expansion of the public health workforce by training new CHWs with a minimum completion rate of 83% and a 90% job placement rate, (2) increase the skills and competencies of all new CHWs (83%) to aid in professional development, continuing education, and retention, (3) increase service-learning site opportunities and develop USDOL Registered Apprenticeship sites in underserved communities, (4) increase the number of CHWs that live and work in underserved communities to aid in the advancement of health equity. STLCC will address HHS/HRSA clinical priorities through expansion of the CHW training program to improve access to quality health services, improve health equity and enhance population health. The program will be accomplished with a training program to add an additional 186 CHW trainees over the three-year period of the funding opportunity. STLCC will enhance curriculum by strengthening current COVID education to include COVID Vaccination Hesitancy and COVID’s impact on chronic disease. A Maternal/Child Family Support module will take an innovative approach to understanding the role of fathers in a commu
nity setting where almost half of the head of households are single mothers in the area to be served. A Suicide Prevention module will examine statistics, risk and protective factors, warning signs, and screening tools for intervention, and suicide prevention. New curriculum will also examine the role of social determinants in accessing care that increase risk and impact, as well as telehealth introduction and basic telehealth best practices. STLCC will sponsor a Registered Apprenticeship and work with the St. Louis CHW Coalition for upskilling CHW graduates and enhancing employer support to aid in retention of CHWs. STLCC is eligible for the Funding Preference for entities that serve individuals who are from disadvantaged backgrounds and graduate large proportions of individuals who serve in underserved communities. Seventy-eight percent of CHW program participants during 2019-2021 were from disadvantaged backgrounds. Seventy-eight percent of graduates/program completers were employed in a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). The total funding amount requested is $ 2,266,510