The Iowa Chronic Care Consortium (ICCC) is committed to promoting and supporting Community Health Workers in Iowa. Last March, an onsite training was held that focused on skills development for this workforce. That training, called CORE – for coaching, outreach, relationship, and engagement – focused on advancing those relationship and engagement skills necessary to be effective in working directly with individuals.

The ICCC has been fortunate to partner with the Midwestern Public Health Training Center to further develop training for CHWs but with a different area of emphasis. These webinars, on opioid misuse, obesity, diabetes and depression, are designed to provide the CHW with specific information about these conditions, as well as helping participants understand their role in supporting individuals with these, and often other comorbid, conditions. Armed with a basic understanding of health conditions, the CHW can be even more effective in their important work in engaging and supporting individuals struggling with these conditions and other determinants of health.

Target Audience: The target audience for this training is Community Health Workers (CHWs). We use this as an umbrella term that encompasses a broad spectrum of front-line workers with roles and many different job titles, such as case manager, navigator, care coordinator, or outreach worker.