Course Information
- Audience: This course is available to Community Health Workers from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont
- Format: Four online peer learning series workshops
- Date/Time: Part 1: Monday April 27, 12pm-1:30pm ET
Part 2: Thursday May 14, 12pm-1.30pm ET
Part 3: Tuesday May 26, 12pm-1:30pm ET
Part 4: Tuesday June 16, 12pm-1.30 pm ET
- Price: Free
- Length: 4 part series, Each of the 4 workshops will last from 12:00pm-1:30pm ET
- Credential(s) eligible for contact hours: If you complete the evaluation, you will receive a Certificate of Completion for each workshop. The Certificate will include the length of the course. Generally 50 – 60 minutes is equivalent to 1 contact hour and the contact hour(s) for this course may be applicable towards continuing education requirements for certain credentials. You may want to check with your credentialing body if you’re unsure if this course meets its continuing education requirements.
- Competencies: Workshop 1 and 2: Public Health Sciences Skills
Workshop 3: Leadership and Systems Thinking Skills
Workshop 4: Community Partnership Skills
- Learning Level: Performance
- Companion Trainings: None
- Supplemental materials: Presentation materials will be available after each session. Thematic analysis of three sessions will be provided to participants.
- Pre-requisites: Current position as CHW, or if furloughed from CHW work, recently furloughed
About this online peer learning series
Community Health Workers are a group of professionals who, under normal times, are generally overstretched and working with challenging populations. As the US confronts the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, these individuals deserve extra support of all kinds:
emotional, informational and structural. We can learn from Community Health Worker (our peers’) insights during this time. This learning experience is intended to be a conversation. The HRSA-funded New England Public Health Training Center, with
its network of almost 9000 public health professionals, is working with partners from Southern New Hampshire AHEC, Mane Mobile Health and the National Association of Community Health Workers to facilitate supportive conversations and learning
among Community Health Workers on the frontlines of COVID-19.
Part 1: Resiliency and Thriving in the age of COVID19 – Peer Learning and Support
How do we uncover the secret power of stress and the key to grow from resilience to thriving for ourselves and the communities we serve?
About part 1 of the series: The Resiliency to Thrive Peer Learning session can help define how each participant perceives life challenges and examine how the power of perception can enhance your resiliency factor or erode it. Resiliency can
grow when one is in tune with mind and body. Raising body consciousness is a KEY for sustainable wellbeing. Now more than ever self-care has been defined as critical to our mental and physical health under the new “normal” of COVID19.
What you'll learn
Through the peer learning process, our guided interaction and listening will allow you to:
- Apply the tools of Resilience and Thriving through self-examination of events in personal and professional lives.
- Evaluate the broader aspects of stress and how they can reframe stressors to strengthen their ability to flourish under challenging circumstances.
- Integrate the role of stress and thriving across the National Wellness Institute’s six dimensions of Wellness.
- Recognize early warning signs and utilizing the core tools of the positive stress cycle
Part 2: Addressing Burnout: Peer Learning & Support for CHWs
Have you found yourself exhausted, frustrated, or discouraged by your job as a community health worker? This could be the right session for you.
About part 2 of the series: Today, burnout is an all too common experience among health care professionals, and Community Health Workers are no exception. On the front lines of providing critical services to vulnerable communities in the era
of coronavirus, while often dealing with the same insecurities that their patients experience, CHWs are particularly vulnerable to stress and burnout. This session will be an opportunity to learn from other CHWs and a mental health professional
on how burnout impacts our day to day work and to identify concrete strategies for self-care and peer support.
What you'll learn
Through the peer learning process, our guided interaction and listening will allow you to:
- Assess yourself for the three main components of burnout
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Choose one new strategy for self-care that you plan to apply to your daily routine
- Examine the potential for burnout in your work environment using 6 key-factors
- Investigate one new opportunity for peer support in your work environment
Part 3: Community Health Workers: Insights on Building a Movement for Health Equity and Social Justice during COVID-19
Will COVID provide the moment of equitable transformation in our systems? Will CHW drive the change?
About part 3 of the series: CHWs have many titles and roles. What is happening with CHWs in other parts of the country during COVID? Are emergency response structures changing because of new challenges and opportunities during the pandemic?
This workshop will explore CHW experiences in Northern New England and some national data. The group will discuss systems changes involving CHWs needed to improve health.
What you'll learn
Through the peer learning process, our guided interaction and listening will allow you to:
- Examine themes from a national survey on CHWs and their information, resource and self-care needs in the early weeks of COVID-19
- Explore strategies used with public and private institutions to advocate for the role of CHWs in emergency response efforts
- Discuss how to advance an equity and social justice agenda among state and national emergency response initiatives
Part 4: Using the Research Lens: Thematic Analysis of the CHW Peer Learning Sessions
What have Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont Community Health Workers expressed about resiliency for themselves and their communities, preventing burnout, and needed change over the three workshops?
About part 4 of the series: Part 4 of the series will describe the research process used to identify key themes about resiliency, burnout, and CHW needs discussed in the previous three sessions. The evaluator will share the identified themes
with participants and engage the CHWs in a discussion to validate and refine the themes.
What you'll learn
Through the peer learning process, our guided interaction and listening will allow you to:
- Describe the research methods used to collect and analyze data and validate findings from the three session
-
Describe strategies that CHWs identified to build resiliency among their clients, as well as to build resiliency and prevent burnout within the CHW workforce and needed change
Subject Matter Expert

Paula Smith, Co Host
Southern New Hampshire Health Education Center

Maria Reyes, SME
Seacoast Public Health Network

Ben Hummel, Co Host
Maine Mobile Health Program

Laura Valencia, SME
Maine Mobile Health Program

Denise Octavia Smith
National Association of CHW

Hope Worden Kenefick, MSW, PhD
Consultant and Evaluator
Registration
Select the Enroll Me button below to register for this workshop series. If you have any trouble accessing the workshop, contact support@nephtc.org.
Acknowledgement: This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP31685 “Regional Public Health Training Center Program.” This
information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.