A report highlighting policy opportunities to build workforce pipeline programs in CA:
LCHC is committed to building workforce pipeline programs for Promotores and community health workers. In recent years – LCHC has worked to incorporate Promotores into our community programming as well as bringing community voices to our advocacy. As part of the efforts to create this workforce, we are excited to share our policy brief: ‘Community health Workers and Promotores: Investing in Change Agents for a Healthy California’. This report hopes to build on the work LCHC does with Promotores and Community Health Workers to identify opportunities to create sustainable and lasting change in collaboration with partners across the state.
About the Report:
Community health workers (CHWs) and Promotores de Salud (Promotores) and advocates for health
and well-being, particularly for California’s historically marginalized communities. As trained individuals who share linguistic, cultural, ethnic, and/or experiential ties to the communities they serve, CHW/Ps (CHWs and Promotores) restore trust, build bridges between community members and essential health and social services, and mobilize social change to address the underlying structural conditions that drive health inequities.
Furthermore, the individuals who are best equipped to serve in these roles are often BIPOC, low-income, are part of the immigrant communities who share an understanding of the lived experiences, and understand the challenges of community members navigating and accessing essential resources. As such, investing in a robust CHW/P workforce not only has the potential to directly impact health, but also to create employment opportunities and help build economic power and agency within vulnerable and historically marginalized communities.
The value and efficacy of investing in CHW/Ps to tackle health disparities and promote community health and well-being has been extensively studied. Yet, while other states have more fully embraced this unique and effective model of health promotion, California has lagged behind.
Philanthropic entities, think tanks, and task forces across the state have widely recommended investment in the CHW/P workforce. Unfortunately these efforts have failed to translate into a comprehensive set of policies or cohesive statewide strategy to fully utilize and invest in the pipeline of CHW/Ps or effectively leverage their unique community expertise to address the gaps in our health and social service systems, improve health outcomes, and transform communities.
Now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which has exposed long-standing social and racial inequities, it is imperative that California meaningfully prioritize CHW/Ps as a necessary investment for health justice. This report, prepared for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC), aims to explore the current landscape of CHW/Ps, opportunities for meaningful policy change, and the path forward in California, while centering the needs of CHW/Ps and the communities they serve. Through an in depth literature review, participation in listening sessions, case studies, and a series of stakeholder interviews, we identified four policy arenas that have significant bearing on the future of the CHW/P workforce in California. Our analysis of these four arenas yielded key takeaways that are critical to understanding how to shape effective policy solutions that advance the CHW/Ps. These key findings then informed a set of recommendations that LCHC and organizational partners can follow to advance a statewide CHW/P policy agenda.
The report is divided into four main parts that explore the core policy arenas, supplemented by case studies, that inform a strategy for effective, anti-racist CHW/P policy. The report concludes with an outline of the policy recommendations to move forward.
LCHC looks forward to using this report to continue to advocate for Community Health Workers and Promotores as a tool to drive health equity in California.
You can view and download the full report here. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our work with Community Health Workers, please email mvelez@lchc.org.
