New England Region Community Health Worker (CHW) Models Groups Interviews of Stakeholder by State – Summary of Findings

The New England Public Health Training Center (NEPHTC) conducted an environmental scan of the status of Community Health Worker (CHW) workforce development in the six New England states in May and June of 2016. The purpose was to help the Center better understand the evolving CHW workforce model in each state and identify potential roles NEPHTC might play in future development of the CHW workforce. NEPHTC has existing expertise in CHW training through its local performance site (LPS) at UMASS Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences. The scan was conducted by the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), another NEPHTC LPS, which conducts needs assessments for the regional center. NEPHTC is one of 10 regional centers that provide continuing education to the public health workforce through a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).The goal of the PHTC program is described by HRSA as “improving the Nation’s public health system by strengthening the technical, scientific, managerial, and leadership competence of the current and future public health workforce.” Emphasis is placed on developing the existing public health workforce as a foundation for improving the infrastructure of the public health system. PHTCs are authorized to regularly conduct training needs assessments to identify training needs on the individual, agency, and workforce/discipline levels. From these assessments PHTCs can work with partners to identify and prioritize training needs the Center can address by developing new trainings or providing access to/adapting existing trainings available from the PHTC network.