Each month, we highlight the journey of an individuals’ professional development into roles within and outside of the CHW profession. This month’s story is about Cynthia’s journey from CHW to Advocate. It illustrates how the CHW profession builds skillsets that are desirable across industries.

Cynthia had been a CHW for over ten years. She had experience working at both non-profits and health centers. She enjoyed working as a CHW and always had a passion for being a voice for the community. She had been in the CHW role for a long time and while she was passionate about the work, she desired to find something to further her professional development. She decided to look into other professions, like health educator, nursing, and social work. None of the roles she was seeing seemed like the right fit for her. Additionally, many of the roles required schooling or added credentials and she was not ready to go back to school. A few weeks went by and she was talking to a fellow CHW about her predicament. Her colleague told her that she should join the state’s CHW association. Her time with the association would be unpaid but would allow her to advocate for the CHW profession while also developing her skills. She was very interested in becoming a CHW advocate and not concerned about the lack of pay since she was paid well in her current role.

Cynthia went onto the state association’s website to set up an account and get in contact with someone in the organization. She ended up setting up a meeting with the association’s director and they recommended that she join one of their workgroups. The director explained they meet once a month and provide an excellent opportunity to advocate for the CHW profession and community. Following their conversation, Cynthia decided to attend the first meeting to get an idea if it would be a good fit for her. She ended up enjoying the workgroup and the fact that she could meet other CHW advocates too. Over the next couple of years, she advocated for many policy changes for CHWs, including certification, funding, and recognition.

Note these stories are based on real-life scenarios but contain fictional characters.

Our CHW Career Web Model resource demonstrates the numerous ways that an individual can find themselves becoming a CHW or how they may progress their career under various ‘career clusters’ like social work, clinical, or advocacy after being a CHW. The resource can be used as a tool by organizations that work with CHWs such as community-based organizations, CHW Associations, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Primary Care Associations (PCAs), and Area Health Educations Centers (AHECs) to help explain the different career trajectories those in the CHW workforce have.