Community Health Worker Programs Materials

A Handbook for Enhancing Community Health Worker Programs: Guidance from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (Part 1), and Breast and Cervical Cancer Messages for Community Health Worker Programs: A Training Packet (Part 2), were designed for use in a series to complement one another. Part 1 focuses on the development and management of community health worker programs. Part 2 has been developed to expand existing community health worker programs to include breast and cervical cancer screening promotion and is used to train community health workers. Both materials have a comprehensive list of references and resources for further reading.

Part 1: Handbook for Enhancing Community Health Worker Programs: Guidance for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program

Intended Audience: This handbook is intended for people who develop or manage community health worker programs in established health care settings and community outreach programs.

Purpose: This handbook serves as a framework for developing and managing community health worker programs that cover a broad array of health issues (e.g., diabetes, maternal and child health).

Summary: This handbook contains a synthesis of the most current information available for developing and managing effective community health worker programs. A description of key components of effective community health worker programs is provided, along with action templates to develop tools for applying what is learned. Upon completing this manual, the reader will build skills in community assessment; program planning; recruiting; training; managing and maintaining community health workers; and evaluation of community health worker programs.

• Introduction (PDF-85KB)
• Overview (PDF-87KB)
• Community Assessment (PDF-20KB)
• Program Planning (PDF-23KB)
• Recruitment (PDF-27K)
• Training (PDF-30KB)
• Management and Maintenance (PDF-25KB)
• Evaluation (PDF-23KB)
• Action Steps Template (PDF-9KB)
• Bibliography and Additional Resources (PDF-20KB)
• Appendix A (PDF-5KB)
• Appendix B (PDF-18KB)
• Appendix C (PDF-39KB)

Part 2: Breast and Cervical Cancer Messages for Community Health Worker Programs: A Training Packet

Intended Audience: This training packet is designed for people who develop and deliver training and educational programs for community health workers (CHWs) in health care settings and community outreach programs.

Purpose: This training packet helps existing community health worker programs reach medically underserved women with information about the early detection of breast and cervical cancer and to train CHWs.

Summary: This training packet provides an introduction to interactive methods for training community health workers, and three lesson plans for training CHWs to include breast and cervical cancer messages in their work. The included lesson plans are (a) key facts about finding breast and cervical cancer early; (b) barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening, and (c) encouraging women to get screened for breast and cervical cancer. Trainer resources, handouts of additional information for participants, and transparencies are also contained in the training packet. By reading the packet, reviewing the suggested materials, and delivering the lesson plans, community health workers will be provided with knowledge and skills for talking about breast and cervical cancer with the women they serve and for recruiting women into breast and cervical cancer screening programs.

• Introduction (PDF-68KB)
• Section I: Methods for Enhancing Community Health Worker Training (PDF-81KB)
• Section II: Recruiting Women for Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening—Three Lesson Plans (PDF-118KB)
• Section III: Bibliography and Additional Resources (PDF-28KB)
• Trainer Resources (PDF-43KB)
• Handouts (PDF-49KB)
• Transparencies (PDF-2.2MB)

Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.