DRAFT CHARTER Narrative
FL CHW Coalition
Purpose
The Florida Community Health Worker (CHW) Coalition recognizes the important contributions of the CHWs and Promotores de Salud in reaching vulnerable, low income, and underserved members of our community. The Coalition promotes increased engagement of CHWs to support health education and prevention efforts, and to improve access to health care services.
CHWs Working Definition
A CHW is a frontline health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served. This trusting relationship enables the CHW to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. A CHW also builds individual and community capacity by increasing health knowledge and self-sufficiency through a range of activities such as outreach, community education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy. Some activities performed by the CHW include providing information on available resources, providing social support and informal counseling, advocating for individuals and community health needs, and providing services such as first aid and blood pressure screening. They may also collect data to help identify community health needs.
Coalition History
A number of agencies across Florida employ Community Health Workers (CHWs). Some examples include community health centers, research institutions, and community-based organizations, both rural and urban. But there has not been focused statewide, multi-agency effort to promote the valuable work the CHWs so. In 2011, the Florida Department of Health Cancer Program, conferring with the statewide cancer council C-CRAB (Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council) received a federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop and promote the work of CHWs in the state.
A task force was convened and a two day meeting was held June 2011.
Structure
The FL Community Health Workers (CHWs) Coalition will consist of members, with diverse subcommittees.Subcommittees and/or teams composed of members of the FL Community Health Workers (CHWs) Coalition will be established to perform specific functions within the FL Community Health Workers (CHWs) Coalition’s jurisdiction. To date, the subcommittees identified include four working groups devoted to policy, curriculum development, networking/sustainability and research/grant writing.
Members of the FL Community Health Workers (CHWs) Coalition will be local/national leaders, experts and/or representatives of organizations that work with CHWs and those who are experienced in developing, training and supporting vulnerable or minority populations in matters related to health promotion, health education, health care and public health.
Meetings
The first face to face meeting was held in Tallahassee on June 2-3, 2011. The meeting summary and presentations will be posted on the Coalition website:
Conference calls and other face to face meetings will be held as needed. All upcoming meetings and records of meetings, including conference calls and in person meetings, will also be posted at
Compensation
The Florida Community Health WorkerCoalition is a completely voluntary organization.Therefore, Coalition members will not be compensated for their work.
Duration
Coalition membership is free and open to all individuals that share the vision, mission and goals of the Coalition. There are two kinds of membership: Member at Large, and Active Member.
Members at Large will receive emails from the Coalition, (?) invitation to Coalition calls, etc. ….
Active Members are expected to select a working group upon membership, join the calls of both their subcommittee and of the full Coalition.
To discuss: Insert statement here of Yearly assessment of participation to keep Active member status?
Approved:
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