CDC Funds COVID-19 Community Health Worker Initiative
Community health workers are a key element of the public health response to the pandemic. They can help address the racial inequities that have left communities of color harder hit than others. In August 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a Community Health Workers for COVID Response and Resilient Communities initiative.
The trusting relationships that community health workers build enable them to serve as a link between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve service delivery.
The CDC initiative, which is in its first year, will distribute a total of $348 million over three years. It provides financial support and technical assistance to 68 states, localities, territories, tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations, and health service providers to tribes. It consists of two funding opportunities intended to put more trained community health workers in communities that have been hit hardest by COVID-19 and among populations at high risk for COVID-19 exposure, infection, and illness.
Intended communities are those with high rates of COVID-19 and long-standing health disparities related to race, income, geographic location, or other sociodemographic characteristics. Intended populations are those at high risk because of their race or ethnicity, income, incarceration, homelessness, or medical conditions.
The initiative has three components:
• Component A focuses on building capacity for community health worker (CHW) efforts among 32 organizations that have some experience with CHWs and want to build capacity by expanding training and oversight plans.
• Component B focuses on improving and expanding existing CHW efforts among 35 organizations with about three years of experience using CHWs.
• Component C focuses on developing innovative approaches within five organizations to strengthen the use of CHWs through policy, systems, or environmental changes.
Comprehensive work plans that are tailored by and for each community will guide CHW efforts. While the specifics of implementation will differ by area and funding, each community will use three key strategies, which together can help end the COVID-19 pandemic and move toward health equity:
• Train CHWs with the knowledge, roles, and skills to support the COVID-19 public health response to manage outbreaks and prevent community spread.
• Deploy CHWs to support the COVID-19 public health response to manage outbreaks and prevent the spread of COVID-19 among priority populations in communities.
• Engage CHWs to help build and strengthen community resilience to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 by improving the overall health of priority populations in communities.
