The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently awarded a $272,000 grant to Dr. Teresa Wagner at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth to help provide free certification courses for community health workers.
The grant also will provide free certification courses in English and Spanish for those aspiring to serve their community, specifically in rural and underserved areas in Texas.
“With the demand for community health workers exploding since the pandemic, we decided to add both certification and instructor trainings through HSC,” says Wagner, who is an assistant professor in HSC’s Department of Lifestyle Health Sciences in the School of Health Professions, in a statement. “Our grant proposal recommended adapting the curriculum into an easily accessible, user-friendly online format in both English and Spanish.”
Wagner, who also serves as clinical executive for SaferCare Texas, previously has developed continuing education modules for community health workers. The Department of Lifestyle Health Sciences also is certified to offer CHW instructor certification courses.
Wagner hopes to target counties that lack community health workers and build that workforce by helping people get credentialed.
“Traditionally, community health workers are the grassroots helpers invested and connected in their community,” Wagner says. “Their roles have evolved as states have begun formalizing their work as a profession. They really are a conduit for health literacy, sharing health information in a way that’s culturally appropriate, understandable and usable for people who have no other way of either accessing or understanding the information in a way that’s actionable.”
The 160-hour certification course will last for 16 weeks and will begin May 31 for CHW certification and June 6 for CHW instructor certification. In-class sessions will be held twice a week and taped for those unable to attend.
The curriculum covers the eight core competencies of community health work — communication, interpersonal interactions, service coordination, capacity-building, advocacy, teaching, organizational skills and knowledge.
Individuals interested in becoming a community health worker or community health worker instructor can contact Teresa Wagner for more information.