Background: Community Health Workers (CHWs) are a key stakeholder group in patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). With support from PCORI, our team and stakeholder partners developed a seven-hour course for training CHWs in PCOR in Florida. We also created a training toolkit (including a Facilitator’s Guide and Student Workbook). Stakeholder feedback suggested that we expand the project to other states and develop a Spanish version of the training.

Proposed Solution: We will expand the geographic breadth of our 2015 PCORI Engagement Award from a statewide project to a national partnership. We will also broaden the reach of the project by developing a Spanish version of the toolkit.

Objectives: Our overarching objective is to strengthen CHW capacity to be involved in PCOR at the national level and increase the organizational capacity of CHW representative organizations in their promotion of PCOR.

Activities: Working with stakeholders in Texas, California, and Tennessee, we will refine the Training Toolkit for local relevance. Using a train-the-trainer model, in each state we will train champions who will then train CHWs in PCOR. We will also create a Spanish version of our toolkit, pilot this toolkit in Florida, and then use the toolkit to train Spanish-speaking CHWs in the three partnering states.

Outcomes: Once the toolkit is revised and a Spanish version has been created, across the three states we will train 10 champions who will use the toolkit to train 360 CHWs across these states. The Spanish version will be piloted with 20 CHWs in Florida and then used to train 50 CHWs in the three partnering states.

Project Collaborators: Our four key partners are Día de la Mujer Latina, a patient advocacy group in Texas; Chula Vista Community Collaborative, a community health empowerment organization in Southern California; Progresso Community Center, a Latino-focused health coalition based in Tennessee; and the Florida Community Health Worker Coalition. We have previously worked with all four of these organizations in other CHW initiatives.

Patient and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: We envision a highly participatory, consensus-driven decision-making approach. Each of the organizations in the target states will provide input into refining the toolkit for local use, select the training champions and develop CHW/promotor outreach and recruitment plans, and deliver the PCOR training to CHWs. In addition, the organizations will also need to set up a local stakeholder advisory group. All key partners will also share equal credit and ownership of all project output and deliverables.