Variation in State Approaches to Community Health Worker Certification

Workforce development initiatives typically begin with efforts to promote commonly accepted definitions, scopes of practice, and training standards for CHWs, based on understanding how CHWs help improve health outcomes, health equity, and quality of care with demonstrated cost effectiveness. Several states have instituted formal, voluntary certification programs for individual CHWs and CHW training programs. Many others are exploring certification options in partnership with providers, payers, and CHW leaders. This comparison chart provides an overview of state approaches to certifying CHWs and is part of ASTHO’s technical assistance program for state health departments working on health system transformation. More resources on CHW certification and state health agency support for CHW workforce development are available on ASTHO’s Community Health Worker webpage: www.astho.org/community-health-workers.