How it all began: The history of CHW certification in Texas

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), Promotora/Community Health Worker Training and Certification Program resulted from Senate Bill 1051 (77th Texas Legislative Sessions), which established and operated a training and certification program for persons who act as promotores or community health workers, instructors, and sponsoring institutions/training programs. The CHW Training and Certification program provides leadership to enhance the development and implementation of statewide training and certification standards and administrative rules as pertaining to CHWs, CHW instructors, and CHW training programs.  This presentation will briefly describe: 1) the history of the certification program; 2) certification and recertification requirements and approval process for the three certification areas; 3) the Advisory Committee (advises DSHS and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission related to the training and certification of persons working as Promotores or CHWs and is composed of nine members—four certified Promotores/CHWs, two public members, one member with experience in adult education and training of Promotores/CHWs; and two professionals who work with Promotores/CHWs); 4) the core competencies of certification program (communication, interpersonal skills, service coordination, capacity-building, advocacy, teaching, organization, and knowledge base); and 5) certification and recertification data collected since the beginning. This presentation will set the stage for additional speakers to talk about the evolution of evaluation of the training program—with the goal to start evaluating the impact of CHW certification on CHWs, communities served by CHWs, and CHW employers.