Community Health Workers (CHWs)
Virginia's Definition of a Community Health Worker:
A Community Health Worker (CHW) applies his or her unique understanding of experience, language and culture of the populations he or she serves to promote healthy living and to help people take greater control over their health and their lives. CHWs are trained to work in a variety of community settings, partnering in the delivery of health and human services to carry out one or more of the following roles:
- Providing culturally appropriate health education and information
- Linking people to the services they need
- Providing direct services, including informal counseling and social support
- Advocating for individual and community needs, including identification of gaps and existing strengths and actively building individual and community capacity
Seven Core Roles of Community Health Workers:
- Providing cultural mediation between communities and health and social service systems
- Providing culturally appropriate health education and information
- Assuring access to needed services
- Providing informal counseling and social support
- Advocating for individual and community needs
- Providing direct services
- Building individual and community capacity
