CHW Advocates are seizing power.

CHW Advocates started in 2020 and is part of the Coalitions Activate work – one of our three tactics. 

A core principle of Activate is that those best placed to advocate for proCHWs are CHWs themselves. CHW Advocates is all about recognizing, cultivating, and building the power of CHWs.

Informed and led by thousands of individual CHW members, we’ve embraced the motto, “Nothing about us, without us,” and committed to ensuring that anytime CHWs are talked about, a CHW is in the room. After all, it’s much harder to deny basic rights to CHWs when one is seated across the table.

Key Activate Priorities

As part of our mission to activate in-country proCHW networks, CHIC members agree to:

1. Facilitate CHW speaking roles at in-person and virtual events
2. Help CHWs to secure a visa to attend in-person events
3. Connect CHWs with advocacy & storytelling training opportunities
4. Work with organizers to identify and support interpretation services

Participation in these core components of Activate is part of our membership criteria. So, when an organization applies to be a member of the Coalition, they commit to supporting the mission to build a global network of proCHW advocates.

In recognition of the fact that CHWs with advocacy training are themselves 2-4 times more likely to engage in political, civic, and workplace advocacy, we developed, in partnership with Stanford’s Digital Medic and a CHW Advisory Group, free digital training for CHWs and CHW supervisors. 

Created together with CHWs as experts, advocacy training equips CHWs with skills to become a powerful force for global norm change, and push for solutions that address issues impacting their profession and their patients.

CHWs’ voices matter, so the advocacy course covers:

• The history and background of CHW programs
• How to advocate for improved working conditions
• How to tell engaging and impactful stories
• How to use technology tools to participate in global, virtual discussions about community health

On our Speaker Bureau you’ll find great examples of CHW Advocates using their training to demand their rights.

CHW Advocacy Training can be accessed online or in person.

Online

The course can be accessed online at www.chwadvocates.app. 

No app installation is required, but active data or WiFi connection is required, along with a phone number for enrollment. 

The self-paced course takes approximately 5.5 hours to complete and is recommended for CHWs and CHW supervisors. The curriculum consists of multimedia elements, assessments, and practical exercises.

Find out more

Please see the Stanford’s Digital Medic webpage for offline options.

In person

We also provide a CHW Advocacy Training Facilitator Guide to be used for in-person training. This is a great resource for organizations and individuals who work with CHWs in low-tech environments and/or regularly convene for in-person gatherings.  

The facilitator’s guide is recommended for CHW trainers and supervisors. It’s easy to follow and highly interactive, with an optional accompanying student workbook. The guide is designed to help training teams incorporate the advocacy and storytelling curriculum into their existing CHW training schedules.

Find out more

Employing a design-based research (DBR) approach, researchers from the Coalition and Stanford’s Digital Medic recruited CHWs from 8 countries — representing varying CHW roles, years of experience, and levels of supervisory responsibility — to serve as an advisory group. 

Through working together on this course, we learned that CHWs entered the training with an understanding of advocacy and perceived themselves as advocates for their communities. But many did lack confidence stemming from what they perceived as inadequate training and lower status on the ladder of participation. During our collaboration, CHWs began to identify as part of a global cohort of professional health workers and recognized their ability to uniquely advocate for themselves and their communities.

RESULTS

• As they engaged more extensively with the course and its various components, the CHWs provided increasingly direct and detailed feedback.
• CHWs were bolstered by the recognition of their contributions and the actions they inspired.
• To engage in advocacy CHWs must overcome systemic barriers and internalized norms, including the moral conflict with self-advocacy.
• Exposure to advocacy principles and active participation in co-creating the advocacy training content for fellow CHWs heightened awareness of the pivotal role CHWs occupy in health systems.

Get the research