Community Health Worker

Program Information     

     The Community Health Worker Program (CHW) prepares students as outreach community health workers to link disadvantaged populations with existing healthcare resources. This is accomplished by providing basic health screening services, identifying needs, providing information, making referrals to appropriate health care providers or agencies, and following up on referrals. CHW’s provide people in need with health education, care coordination, help to facilitate access to services and work with clients to take steps to improve the quality of their health and their lives. Other job titles for CHW’s include outreach worker, patient navigator, case worker, eligibility worker, and similar.

     The CHW program capitalizes on the linguistic and cultural assets of multilingual learners, or English Language (EL) students. These students are uniquely suited for the role due to their ability to bridge language and cultural gaps between healthcare providers and underserved or marginalized populations. The CHW programs recruit students from all career academies at WHS who want to play a vital role in helping people.

Schedule: Summer, Fall & Spring Classes

Location: Waipahu High School

Certification: Certificate of Competence in CHW

Cost of Program: Free (normally $495/course but grants will pay for the courses)

Benefits: Dual credit (4.0 grading scale), participate in KCC commencement ceremony in May, projected average wage: $17.30/hr (Hawaii Data)