The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $1 million to the
envision program at the Arnold School’s Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA). They will use the grant, which is renewable at $200,000 annually for five
years, to strengthen the community health worker (CHW) workforce nationwide and the
ability of other entities to partner with CHWs.
“The envision team at USC, together with our envision partners, will be providing
technical assistance and training to CHW organizations and to organizations developing
CHW programs to implement best practices and strategies of the CHW workforce,” says
Julie Smithwick, executive director for CCHA. “Our goal is to offer consultation and ongoing guidance
that helps these organizations employ community health workers effectively as they
work to address social drivers of health and promote greater health equity.”
As a collaboration of CHWs and allies, envision provides training and technical assistance
to community-based organizations, localities, territories, tribes, tribal organizations,
and urban Indian health organizations. CCHA helped establish the national partnership*
in 2021 to further the effective growth of community health workers and in 2022, the
partnership received a $2.3 million cooperative agreement for the Envision Equitable
Healthy Communities project that they used to aid communities most impacted by COVID-19*.
This funding comes at a critical time. It will allow us to continue our work supporting
public health, health care and community based organizations in implementing community
health worker programs, integrating them into existing care teams, collecting and
analyzing health care and public health data to inform program development, evaluate
the programs, and assist diverse partners in understanding the roles of and how to
partner with CHWs.
Lisa Renee Holderby-Fox, executive director for envision
This latest funding will extend and expand this work to build on the progress of the
past three years. Working with many of the same partners**, the six-person CCHA-envision
team will lead this new initiative under the direction of envision executive director
Lisa Renee Holderby-Fox.
“This funding comes at a critical time,” Holderby-Fox says. “It will allow us to continue
our work supporting public health, health care and community based organizations in
implementing community health worker programs, integrating them into existing care
teams, collecting and analyzing health care and public health data to inform program
development, evaluate the programs, and assist diverse partners in understanding the
roles of and how to partner with CHWs.”
In particular, the project will focus on addressing social drivers of health to promote
health equity. The community health worker workforce already been proven to be an
effective strategy for improving the health of communities at the grassroots level.
These public health professionals are typically members of the areas they serve and
are vetted at the local level as trusted resources. The training and support they
receive related to disease prevention, intervention, service coordination, and cultural
competence makes them particularly well-suited to removing barriers to advancing health
equity.
This cooperative agreement is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance
award totaling $200,000 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement,
by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
*CCHA’s Envision Equitable Healthy Communities partners include Mobilizing Action
Toward Community Health (MATCH), University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
School of Medicine and Public Health; Louisiana State University Health (LSU Health);
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health, Chronic Disease
Prevention Unit; and Care Coordination Systems (CCS) and Kinetic Health.
**Members of the new CDC partnership include the Arnold School of Public Health Center
for Community Health Alignment (CCHA), Wisconsin Department of Health Services, MATCH,
Community Health Worker Institute at Louisiana State University Health in New Orleans,
and Kinetic Health.