CHWs and Team Based Care

Implementing targeted strategies resulting in measurable impacts

Arizona CHW Workforce Support

Stakeholders supporting the CHW workforce

Arizona CHW Certification Advisory Council

Appointed by the Director of ADHS to make recommendations to the department regarding CHW certification requirements and standards.

Announcements & Resources

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What is a Community Health Worker (CHW)

Community Health Workers are essential components to the current and future infrastructure of healthcare. Community Health Worker (CHW) is an umbrella term used to encompass many different job descriptions including Community Health Representatives, Patient Navigator, Promotores de Salud, Community Health Advisors and Cultural Health Navigators, to name a few.

It is well known throughout the country the Community Health Worker movement has deep roots in Arizona from both the long history of Community Health Representatives in tribal communities dating back to the early 1960 as well as the Arizona promotora movement dating back to the Healthy Start/Un Comienzo Sano program in Yuma, Arizona in the 1980s.

Community Health Workers are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of and/or have an in depth understanding of the community served. This trusting relationship enables the CHW to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health/social serves and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. A CHW also builds individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy. (Adopted from the American Public Health Association, 2009)