Describing Results from the “Promoting the Health of the Community” National Needs Assessment

Abstract

In 2016, the editors of this book, along with collaborators, developed a survey in order to gain input for the development of a call-for-chapters proposal. The survey served as an opportunity to elicit contributions about roles, responsibilities, and competencies of community health workers (CHWs), CHW instructors/trainers, CHW stakeholders/allies, and CHW employers. Survey collection occurred from July 15, 2016, to February 15, 2017. During that time, the survey collected responses from 773 participants. The survey consisted of approximately 180 questions. Each participant classified themselves as either a CHW, a CHW instructor or trainer, a CHW stakeholder or ally, or a CHW employer, and they completed a subset of the overall survey that corresponded to their current role. The survey took approximately 20 min to complete. This chapter summarizes and discusses the findings of this survey, with the intent to give our readers a glimpse of CHWs across the United States, and to provide context as readers proceed through each chapter with CHWs sharing their stories of how they do the work they do and the roles they fulfill to serve their places of work, communities, and clients.

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