Community Health Worker Programs
As part of the Environmental Health Capacity and Literacy Project, the Center issued two year subcontracts for community health worker (CHW) employment to a number of community-based organizations (CBO) and federally qualified health centers (FQHC) in Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi (see below). Read about some succeesses and lessons learned from implementing this CHW program here.
| Organization Name | State | Parish/County | Type of Organization |
| Boat People SOS - Biloxi | MS | Harrison | CBO |
| Boat People SOS - Bayou La Batre | AL | Mobile | CBO |
| Escambia Community Clinics | FL | Escambia & Santa Rosa | FQHC |
| Franklin Primary Health Center | AL | Mobile & Baldwin | FQHC |
| Friends of Lafitte Greenway | LA | Orleans | CBO |
| Gulf Coast Health Educators | MS | Jackson, Hancock & Harrison | CBO |
| Jefferson Community Health Care Centers | LA | Jefferson | FQHC |
| Mercy Housing and Human Development | MS | Jackson, Hancock & Harrison | CBO |
| Mobile County Health Department | AL | Mobile | FQHC |
| NOELA Community Health Center | LA | Orleans | FQHC |
| New Orleans Musician's Clinic & Assistance Foundation | LA | Orleans | CBO |
| PanCare of Florida | FL | Walton & Bay | FQHC |
| Plaquemines Community CARE Centers Foundation | LA | Plaquemines | CBO |
| Pneuma Winds of Hope - Starfish Cafe | MS | Hancock | CBO |
| Teche Action Clinic | LA | Terrebonne & Lafourche | FQHC |
| United Houma Nation | LA | Terrebonne | CBO |
| Vietnamese Intiatives in Economic Training (VIET) | LA | Orleans | CBO |
CHWs were actively involved as part of the Center's community-academic initiative to work with women of reproductive age living in disaster affected parishes in Southeast Louisiana. The CHWs had an intimate understanding of the communities they served and were successful in forging trusting relationships that enabled them to act as an intermediary between health systems, social services, and the community to facilitate access and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. All of the CHWs were trained by the Center in care coordination and patient navigation using a curriculum specifically tailored to disaster-prone communities in the Gulf Coast.
