Combating Cancer in Your Community: Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Community Health Worker Training Program Addressing Cancer Disparities

Combating Cancer in Your Community is an eight-hour workshop designed to provide Community Health Workers (CHWs), patient navigators, and other front-line health professionals with an introduction to cancer and provide necessary skills and information to reduce cancer health disparities. Through lecture and interactive teaching strategies, CHWs explored the basic concepts of cancer genesis, screening, diagnosis, risk reduction, treatment and supportive services and were taught by experts in the field on five specific cancers: breast, cervix, colorectal, prostate and lung. Participants explored how cancer is perceived in a variety of cultures and learned of resources available for their use and resources that can be shared with clients. The course was designed with and for CHWs and can be customized to discuss cancer topics of greatest relevancy to CHWs and their communities. To date, more than 200 CHWs in Minnesota and Wisconsin who serve a range of ethnically and geographically diverse cultures have been trained. Evaluation using pre/post test design indicated an increase in cancer knowledge by 13% as a result of the trainings. Post training evaluation by CHWs provided ideas for curriculum improvement. Six-month post evaluation provided insight into how CHWs used the information from the trainings and how it enhanced their ability to better serve their clients.