A holistic training approach to addressing environmental stressors on reproductive health: Lessons learned from the community health worker corps of the transdisciplinary research consortium for gulf resilience on women's health

Community health workers are effective in improving access to healthcare, promoting client knowledge and behavior change, and contributing to improved health-related quality of life. However, few community-academic partnerships use this evidenced-based practice to specifically enhance research initiatives in disaster prone populations exposed to persistence environmental stressors. Along the Gulf Coast, ecosystem health plays a prominent role in building a sustainable future for coastal communities and is increasingly seen as the central platform of public health in the region. The vulnerability of location poses a significant challenge to the region's capacity to eliminate health disparities. In response, a multi-disciplinary team of investigators have developed competency standards and a logic model-driven approach for strengthening specialization in environmental sciences, disaster management, and reproductive health to achieve a sustainable community-based workforce. Using established CHW fundamentals and an existing adult-learning approach as the foundation, core competencies and specialty modules were implemented to enable sustainable participation in active Gulf Coast research. Currently, 100 WIC-eligible pregnant and post-partum women are being followed by 6 CHWs across the six Southeastern Louisiana parishes. A CHW Corps equipped with mobile health technology integrated into a community-based participatory research design addresses community resilience and has demonstrated increased engagement and adherence to prenatal care. The holistic CHW training framework empowers pregnant and post-partum women to learn, adhere to care, and actively adapt to changing conditions. CHWs shape innovation in public health research and practice to build resilience in vulnerable populations.