Strengthening CHW Civic Engagement to Promote a Culture of Health in Georgia
The primary goal of the Community Voices for Health project is to advance health equity in Georgia by building and increasing the capacity of Georgia’s Community Health Workers (“CHWs”) to engage in effective civic advocacy and community organizing. This project utilized a core leadership team made up of Georgia Watch, Georgians for a Healthy Future (“GHF”), Morehouse School of Medicine (“MSM”), and Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc. (Georgia Act). Given our specialized backgrounds in health advocacy and our leadership in existing coalitions, such as Georgia Community Health Work advocacy coalition that was formed in 2018 and led by Georgia Watch, the project partners will provide the necessary training, learning opportunities, and technical assistance for CHW’s engaged or interested in advocacy and organizing.
By leveraging the Georgia Community Health Worker advocacy coalition as well as relationships with advocacy groups, state agencies like Georgia Department of Public Health, and policymakers, we believe we can arm CHWs with resources that will increase the efficacy of their organizing work and enable them to strategically mobilize marginalized communities around policy issues.
The infrastructure and ongoing engagement developed through this project has ensured that Georgia CHWs have a working knowledge of advocacy best practices; and that they have a core set of advocacy skills at different policy levels; and are equipped with important tools and resources to strategically mobilize marginalized communities around policy issues; and enable CHWs to train their peers, in effect creating a sustainable ecosystem of CHW civic advocacy and community organizing around health equity.
