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Training and Education

Enlighten Together 

Enlighten Together hosts distance education courses and curricula. This site complements CPHA’s research and programmatic efforts by providing high-quality and interactive trainings about a variety of health topics. In the spirit of our collaborative C4 (community, clinical, corporate, campus) strategy, these trainings can be used across sectors to enhance knowledge and skills among the population health and aging workforce. The growing set of offerings on the site can help organizations and individuals:

  1. obtain continuing education units (CEUs)
  2. be trained and certified to lead initiatives
  3. get on-boarded for specific projects and initiatives
  4. train to better serve communities and clients

Training topics offered through Enlighten Together include public health and aging, disease management, Community Health Worker breast cancer training, opioids and naloxone, and vaccinations. LEARN MORE. [link to https://www.cphatraining.com/ ] 

National Community Health Worker Training Center 

Since inception, the NCHWTC has developed two certification curricula and various continuing education units (CEUs) for CHWs. Once developed, the training center offers trainings to CHWs across the country. Currently, the NCHWTC is one of few training centers that offer in-person classes and online courses in both English and Spanish. Additionally, the NCHWTC is also one of the few training centers that offer “self-paced” online courses allowing busy individuals to complete the certification course at their own pace and is the only training center to offer this self-paced, online format in Spanish. These online courses expand the training center’s national presence by increasing access to CHWs/CHWIs across the country who are unable to attend or do not have access to in-person classes. To date, the training center has provided over 132,000 hours of training to over 6,000 CHW/CHW Instructors. LEARN MORE. [link to https://nchwtc.tamhsc.edu/ ] 

Advancing the Access to Cancer Training, Information, Outreach and Navigation (ACTION) 

In partnership with the College of Nursing, the NCHWTC was awarded a Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas dissemination grant focused on developing cancer prevention, detection, treatment and survivorship CEUs for CHWs. Through the grant, the training center is developing 13 new CEUs on liver and lung cancer and will train CHWs across the state. Additionally, the project will partner with dissemination partners across the state to build CHW capacity at individual and organizational levels through training and technical assistance. 

Rural Health Best Practices: Evaluation of Community Health Workers 

In partnership with the College of Nursing, the training center is participating in a cooperative agreement with the National Rural Health Association to train and evaluate CHWs at the national level. The evaluation focuses on CHW demographics, employment, certification status, and services provided, and data collected through the project will further research about utilization of CHWs for health education and outreach. 

Community Health Worker Tobacco Cessation Outreach Strategies 

Since 2016, the Texas DSHS has contracted with the NCHWTC to provide outreach and training to CHWs about tobacco cessation efforts and the DSHS tobacco Quitline. Through this ongoing project, the training center has developed a 160-hour certification course covering the required CHW core competencies with a particular focus on tobacco cessation. Each year, the NCHWTC expands upon project efforts to offer more trainings and develop additional resources for CHWs. 

The Rural Community Matters Project 

The Rural Community Matters Project is a partnership between Friendship of Women, Inc., a rape crisis center located in Cameron County, Texas, the College of Nursing, and the NCHWTC. The project intends to:

  1. provide direct services to victims of trauma
  2. provide education and training to law enforcement
  3. provide CHW certification to victims of domestic violence to empower victims to become survivors so that they become self-sufficient
  4. provide education to community residents to help increase awareness on prevention of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.

The NCHWTC will provide the project CHW certification trainings and will work closely with project partners to appropriately engage and empower survivors. 

Safe Mothers in Texas 

In partnership with the Texas A&M University School of Nursing, the training center is developing curricula and providing training that focuses on intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use disorder (SUD). The grant, funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, aims to gather best practices and current evidence to develop training to educate IPV providers about SUD and SUD providers about IPV and the intersection of both during pregnancy and postpartum. Education will also be available for all medical providers, particularly those in rural and medically-underserved areas, to integrate protocols and information in practice.