Working with Community Leaders to Promote Equal Access and Progressive Policies

Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Miami are playing an important role at both the grassroots and policy level. Though CHWs are not new to South Florida, the past two years has seen the beginning of the implementation of a CHW-led, three-level standardized training curriculum. Currently there are 125 CHWs who completed the standardized Level I training and 56 of those trained are currently employed as CHWs. While CHWs in Miami-Dade County work for a variety of different agencies, they have also begun to standardize data collection and documentation with the support and collaboration of the Jackson Memorial Foundation, Community Voices Miami and The Children's Trust HealthConnect in Our Community initiative ( the latter being the only funder currently providing dollars for actual CHW positions in Miami-Dade County). CHWs in Miami are identifying policy and systemic issues that have become major obstacles in linking and assuring people access to care. This presentation will focus on three areas: the curriculum-building process and its outcomes; building a CHW Network; and the knowledge gained from CHWs' documentation and sharing of information with local and national policy makers.