Community Health Workers and COVID-19

Community Health Workers are uniquely positioned to respond to COVID-19 as they frequently serve communities who are particularly at risk during the pandemic. In South Carolina, CHWs primarily serve communities of color and communities that are low-income, two groups that are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The United States Department of Homeland Security identified CHWs as “essential critical infrastructure workers” in the COVID-19 response, which makes it all the more important to keep them updated with the resources necessary to serve their communities.

The Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA) facilitates a virtual learning collaborative, where Community Health Workers (CHWs) and other frontline community health professionals connect and share resources and best practices with each other. CHWs each have different knowledge of how to respond to situations that arise during the COVID-19 crisis, and the ability to share that knowledge with other CHWs is crucial to an effective statewide response to COVID-19.

Some of the topics discussed so far include: food access, contact tracing, mental health, supporting survivors of interpersonal violence, legal rights and health and racial equity, among others.

To get more information about upcoming sessions, click here or contact Dom Francis at mychelle@sc.edu.

For more information on CHWs and their roles in addressing COVID-19, click here or download the CBWA Playbook for CHW Engagement Summary which gives details about for Local Health Departments.