11 Organizations Receive Funding to Better Integrate Community Health Workers
The Common Health Coalition, whose mission is to strengthen partnership between healthcare and public health, announced 11 Catalyst Awards recipients as part of its inaugural Common Health Challenge.
The Challenge spotlights the role of community health workers (CHWs) in the broader health system. The Catalyst Awards will fund work that demonstrates the integration of CHWs in ways that strengthen partnerships between healthcare and public health. Each organization will receive an award of $40,000.
Healthcare Innovation covered the December 2024 meeting of the nonprofit Common Health Coalition, which was officially launched in March 2024 to turn the lessons of the pandemic response into actionable strategies to strengthen the partnership between healthcare and public health systems. Founding members include AHIP, the Alliance of Community Health Plans, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, and Kaiser Permanente, but the organization has since grown to over 200 members. It is hosted by the nonprofit Institute for Public Health Innovation.
“Community health workers are trusted professionals who build bridges between the health system and the communities they serve,” said Dave Chokshi, M.D., chair of the Common Health Coalition, in a statement. “CHWs can also serve in a less recognized, yet equally vital capacity: bridging healthcare and public health institutions. It’s this nexus that we aim to spotlight through our inaugural Common Health Challenge.”
At the center of the Challenge is a call to action for public health and healthcare institutions to deploy CHW programs that facilitate better resource, data, strategy, and information sharing between the often-siloed parts of the U.S. health system.
The 11 organizations receiving a Catalyst Award, in alphabetical order, are:
● AIRnyc, New York
● Henry Ford Health, Michigan
● IMPaCT Care, Indiana
● MaineGeneral Health, Maine
● Mní Wičhóni Health Circle, North Dakota
● RIPIN, Rhode Island
● South Louisville Community Ministries, Kentucky
● Sueños Sin Fronteras de Tejas (SSFTX), Texas
● Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Washington
● Tennessee Community Health Worker Association, Tennessee
● Virginia Commonwealth University Health System (VCUHS), Virginia
The awardees represent CHW initiatives in 11 states, spanning rural, urban, and tribal communities and operating at all levels, national, state, regional, and hyperlocal. Their work serves a broad range of populations and public health needs, from the maternal health needs of indigenous populations in North Dakota, to low-income older adults and individuals with disability in Indiana, to populations impacted by housing insecurity in Kentucky. All of the recipients are implementing partnerships between CHW programs, healthcare organizations, and public health, and have plans to strengthen and formalize these partnerships with the awarded grant funds.
“Our awardees represent communities at the vanguard of a model that ought to be the norm: CHW initiatives that cinch together healthcare and public health,” said Chokshi, in a statement. “And yet, we also know the funding environment for CHW initiatives has changed dramatically since we first introduced the Challenge. The work of CHWs matters more now than ever, and we are proud to offer catalytic support for these organizations and their critical work. We hope that other funding organizations will take note and follow suit.”
