California hospital employers would ideally hire approximately 12 times more community health workers than they currently plan to hire if funding were not a barrier, according to employer surveys conducted by the Healthforce Center at UCSF. Among clinic-based employers, who employ CHWs at significantly higher rates than hospital-based employers, 79 percent are already actively employing CHWs, and they more often require relevant lived experience and bilingual ability for CHW positions than hospital-based employers do. CHW Corps is HUMANDREAM Foundation’s response to that documented gap: a workforce pipeline operating through a community college-based public health training program and Hispanic-Serving Institution in Long Beach, recruiting 30 to 40 students per cohort from the majority Latino/x, Black/African American, and Pacific Islander communities that clinic-based employers identify as the most qualified pipeline for closing California’s health equity workforce shortage.

Source: Healthforce Center at UCSF employer surveys, 2021-2022.

CHW Corps recruits 30 to 40 students per cohort from predominantly Latino/x, Black/African American, and Pacific Islander neighborhoods in Long Beach, where health workforce shortages are most severe and the absence of representative providers most acute. Recruitment operates through the college’s established infrastructure: counseling, targeted community outreach, and orientation. The student body is over 60 percent Hispanic/Latino and predominantly low-income, positioning the program to produce graduates who reflect and understand the communities they will serve.

Students complete the CHW Certificate of Achievement through the community college’s credentialed training infrastructure. The curriculum covers health outreach, education, care navigation, culturally responsive engagement, and community-based preventive care. The training model includes behavioral and social well-being curriculum, including trauma-informed care and crisis recognition, preparing students to respond to both physical and behavioral health challenges facing underserved communities. Students complete credit-bearing, supervised fieldwork with health systems, community organizations, and social service partners across Long Beach and the broader Los Angeles Basin, building verified, employer-facing evidence of workforce-ready competencies documented through GloCha’s digital portfolio and fieldwork verification platform.

Graduates connect to employment through a formalized employer network targeting Federally Qualified Health Centers, community health organizations, school-based health programs, and county agencies. Fieldwork placements are structured to create direct pathways to employment, with active employer relationship management by HUMANDREAM Foundation. HUMANDREAM deploys an outcomes tracking system measuring graduate employment rates, CHW retention, service delivery metrics, and health outcomes, generating the evidence base required by future funders, Medi-Cal payers, and workforce partners.

Retention is designed into the model, not appended. Mentorship pairs placed CHWs with experienced providers. Employer research conducted by the Healthforce Center at UCSF found that among clinic-based employers, 85 percent reported advancement opportunities for CHWs in their organizations, compared to 36 percent of hospital-based employers. Clinic-based employers more often reported wage increases as an advancement opportunity for CHW employees compared to hospital-based employers. The CHW Certificate of Achievement provides the portable, employer-recognized credential that clinic-based employers identify as supporting career progression. HUMANDREAM Foundation tracks alumni employment and progression, supporting long-term workforce sustainability beyond the training period.

Source: Healthforce Center at UCSF employer surveys, 2021-2022.

Students complete the community college’s CHW Certificate of Achievement, a focused, credit-bearing credential that does not require a four-year degree, reducing both the cost and time to enter the health workforce. This certificate is the foundation of the pipeline and the entry point for all subsequent credential support.

The CHW Certificate of Achievement is a portable, employer-recognized credential across the health care settings that employ CHWs at the highest rates in California. Employer research conducted by the Healthforce Center at UCSF found that 79 percent of clinic-based employers actively employed CHWs, compared to 39 percent of hospital-based employers, and that clinic-based employers more often reported wage increases as an advancement opportunity for CHW employees. Over half of clinic-based employers that did not yet employ CHWs identified workforce certification as a tool that would help address their hiring barriers. In a field where most workforce programs stop at training, this credential layer converts graduates into recognized, advancement-eligible workforce assets for the health systems and community organizations that hire them.

Source: Healthforce Center at UCSF employer surveys, 2021-2022.

The program’s equity and accountability infrastructure is informed by Ruby Guillen, MSW, White House President’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Co-Chair of the United Nations Association USA Human Rights Affinity Group, Chair of the American Public Health Association’s Health Informatics and Information Technology Section, and HUMANDREAM Advisory Board member. Guillen brings over two decades of child welfare and emergency response expertise spanning 7,000 or more case investigations across Los Angeles County, alongside her own lived experience as a recipient of LA County child welfare services. Her public health informatics expertise directly governs CHW Corps’ outcomes tracking infrastructure, and her investigative background in system-impacted families and community health informs the program’s provider accountability framework.

A core deliverable of CHW Corps is a publicly available CHW Workforce Development Toolkit: a documented, replicable framework for community colleges and community-based organizations across California seeking to expand CHW training capacity. Engagement records and community health data generated through the program will become permanent public assets. The Toolkit will be shared statewide with community-based CHW training programs, workforce development initiatives, and public agencies, enabling partners to host and engage future student cohorts in community-based fieldwork.