Foundations for Community Health Workers

Foundations for Community Health Workers is a training resource for client- and community-centered public health

practitioners, with an emphasis on promoting health equality. Based on City College of San Francisco's CHW Certificate

Program, it begins with an overview of the historic and political context informing the practice of community health

workers. The second section of the book addresses core competencies for working with individual clients, such as

behavior change counseling and case management, and practitioner development topics such as ethics, stress management, and conflict resolution. The book's final section covers skills for practice at the group and community levels, such as

conducting health outreach and facilitating community organizing and advocacy.

Praise for Foundations for Community Health Workers

"This book is the first of its kind: a manual of core competencies and curricula for training community health workers.

Covering topics from health inequalities to patient-centered counseling, this book is a tremendous resource for both

scholars of and practitioners in the field of community-based medicine. It also marks a great step forward in any setting,

rich or poor, in which it is imperative to reduce health disparities and promote genuine health and well-being."
—Paul E. Farmer, MD., PhD, Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; founding director, Partners In Health.

"This book is based on the contributions of experienced CHWs and advocates of the field. I am confident that it will serve as an inspiration for many CHW training programs."
—Yvonne Lacey, CHW, former coordinator, Black Infant Health Program, City of Berkeley Health Department; former chair, CHW Special Interest Group for the APHA.

"This book masterfully integrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of a CHW through storytelling and real life case examples. This simple and elegant approach brings to life the intricacies of the work and espouses the spirit of the role that is so critical to eliminating disparities—a true model educational approach to emulate."
—Gayle Tang, MSN, RN., director, National Linguistic and Cultural Programs, National Diversity, Kaiser Permanente

"Finally, we have a competency-based textbook for community health worker education—well informed by seasoned CHWs themselves as well as expert contributors."
—Donald E. Proulx, CHW National Education Collaborative, University of Arizona