Community Health Workers to Health Policy Advocates: Engaging CHWs in the policy development process

Certification is a complex topic that has generated lively debate among diverse audiences in many states. The Chicago Community Health Worker (CHW) Local Network (LN) is a diverse group of CHWs, policy analysts, researchers, and health care representatives who are dedicated to supporting the work of CHWs. For the past year, the CHW LN has worked toward developing a policy that would support CHW certification in Illinois. . To this end, the CHW LN policy committee developed a series of CHW Policy Workshops intended to engage CHWs and other stakeholders in the policy development process. The group hosted workshops in the Chicago area and will partner with other agencies to conduct workshops throughout the state to obtain a holistic view of what a constructive CHW certification policy should look like and how it should be developed. The interactive workshops focus on a variety of topics including: defining CHWs, training, supervision, funding, and lastly CHW certification and/or licensing. It was thought that if CHWs and advocates had a full understanding of the policy development process, they would be more likely to participate. Therefore, workshops begin with a brief presentation about the policy process. Thus far, over 100 people have participated in the workshops. The committee has begun to synthesize the diverse array of opinions and workshop outcomes. This presentation will discuss the process of developing a CHW certification policy workshop, the successes and challenges of implementing the workshops, and next steps in the creation of CHW certification policy in Illinois.