- Limited Enrollment
Community Health Worker
Gain the Essential Skills to Become a Certified Community Health Worker
Calbright’s Certified Community Health Worker (CHW) program provides the foundation for a career in the community health industry, and prepares you to be a certified Community Health Worker.
What is a Community Health Worker?
Community Health Workers (CHWs) are frontline trusted members of their communities who link community members to health and social services. They provide culturally appropriate outreach, education, helping people access food assistance, transportation, and chronic disease care management. They support specific health functions and connect people with formal health systems, which include care coordination, health screenings, and navigating social services.
What can Calbright’s Community Health Worker program do for you?
Students will learn how to:
- Identify health navigation and care coordination skills while supporting specific community groups
- Provide health education to individuals, groups and communities
- Apply community health strategies that help specific communities or individuals
Please note: As required by the state of California and as part of standard practice for employment in the healthcare field, students in this program will be required to pay for a background screening and to meet additional health requirements.
6
8 weeks
10-12 months
Start any time
TBD
Introductory
English
This pilot program has reached capacity and is currently closed to new enrollees. Please enter your information below to get updates on future enrollment.
Get Started
Enroll now in Calbright’s Community Health Worker Program
Note: This program has a limited enrollment window. Act fast to be included!
Key Benefits
100% Free
Online
Flexibly Paced
Certificate in 10-12 months
Overview
Start your new path in Community Health
In-demand skills for a growing field
Calbright’s CHW certificate program will provide the foundation for a career in the community health worker industry, and prepares you for the Community Health Worker certificate and help you gain a new role in the community health profession.
You will be able to use your Calbright certificate to work as a community health worker to promote wellness by helping people adopt healthy behaviors, implement programs and advocate for people who may have limited access to health resources and social services.
The need for community health workers is expected to grow by 13% by 2035 with 27,000 job opportunities within the state and an average starting salary of $57,000.
This program is currently free to California residents.
Key Competencies
Cultural Mediation Among Individuals, Communities, and Health and Social Service Systems
Providing Culturally Appropriate Health Education and Information
Care Coordination, Case Management, and System Navigation
Providing Coaching and Social Support
Advocating for Individuals and Communities
Building Individual and Community Capacity
Implementing Individual Assessments
Conducting Outreach and Research
Courses in this Program
Introduction to Community Health Worker
This course introduces you to the key roles and competencies of Community Health Workers (CHWs) and provides a big-picture lens to the complex and dynamic nature of core roles and skills in the field, how to identify local and national networks, and how to assess various client populations.
Community Health Worker Core Roles
This course introduces students to the key roles of community health workers and is aligned with the National Community Health Worker Core Consensus Project. You'll learn client coaching roles specific to cultural humility, mediation, health education, care management, system navigation, and care coordination.
Community Health Worker Core Skills Competencies
Students will learn the key competencies of Community Health Workers (CHWs), including communication, interpersonal relationships, service coordination, capacity building, advocacy, education and facilitation, individual and community assessment, outreach, professional skills and ethical conduct, and evaluation and research.
Key Health Issues Among Specific Populations
In this course, you'll learn the key health issues among specific high-risk populations, how to promote the health of formerly incarcerated persons, clients living with common chronic diseases, conditions affecting elderly clients, and clients experiencing trauma and recovery.
Community-Based Organizations and Internship Placement
As part of your program, you will participate in an internship to apply your Community Health Worker learnings to develop hands-on skills, facilitated by Calbright’s workforce partner. You'll apply core roles, skill competencies, and qualities while engaging with clients during your internship.
Community Health Worker Internship Completion and Career Readiness
As the second part of your internship, you'll receive guidance on how to launch your Community Health Worker career by creating employment outreach tools such as a social media network, initiate your health career portfolio, develop your resume, cover letter, and biographical narrative statement to strengthen your employment applications.
Topics Covered
Calbright programs are designed to reflect labor market needs, and are built in collaboration with employers. You’ll build knowledge and skills in the key areas of Community Health that employers need. The program covers these topics and more:
Note: While Calbright programs are flexibly paced, enrollment agreements are limited in duration. Students are enrolled in successive 6-month terms for a maximum program length of three years.
- Communication
- Interpersonal and Relationship Building
- Service Coordination and Navigation
- Advocacy
- Education and Facilitation
- Individual and Community Assessment
- Outreach
- Professional Skills and Conduct
- Evaluation and Research
- Knowledge Base
Careers and Outcomes
What can you do with a Community Health Worker certificate from Calbright?
The following entry-level roles are examples of attainable positions with the skill set and industry-recognized credential made possible via Calbright's Community Health Worker certificate program.
Community Health Worker
You’ll promote wellness by helping people adopt healthy behaviors, implement programs and advocate for people who may have limited access to health resources and social services.
Housing Navigator
In this role, you provide critical support to individuals and families facing eviction, emphasizing re-housing efforts and preventing homelessness. You collaborate closely with community partners to facilitate re-housing solutions, offer comprehensive case management, and contribute to fostering stable housing environments.
Care Management
The Care Management CHW is a member of the care management team and is responsible for promoting members’ optimal health and well-being through active engagement and assisting with health care access, resources and navigation. They may provide 1:1 home visits, group education, mentoring and serve as client advocates.
We'll help you get there!
No one should have to be in college alone, and at Calbright you’ve got a team working with you, supporting your success. Whether it’s help with your classes, help with technology, or even someone to help connect you to services you need in your life, we are here to be part of your journey to a better career.
Jobs estimates, median wage and job growth figures via Lightcast Occupational Overview 2025.3, SOC 21-1094 Community Health Workers, 21-1099 Community & Social Services Specialists, all other. Note: Educational Attainment data is Nationwide, Program Information is for Certificate programs of 2 years or fewer.
$57k
Median average salary for entry level roles
27k
Anticipated new jobs in CA by 2035
13%
Expected job growth rate in CA by 2035
Faculty members
“I feel confident that with my experience I can transfer into a role in HR learning and development, but I needed a bit of a boost to learn the terminology, the ins and outs of the profession, the jargon, and the structure. And that foundational structure is what Calbright is able to give me. The fact that it’s free is an absolute bonus. It’s great.” Read Melissa’s story.
FAQs
Who can be a student at Calbright?
Calbright is open to all California residents aged 18 years or older who have a high school diploma or GED equivalent.
All Californians — regardless of immigration status — are welcome to enroll.
Why should I attend Calbright?
First, our training programs prepare you to earn industry-recognized certifications (via exams offered by third-party providers like CompTIA and Salesforce), proof to employers that you’re ready to succeed in a new career on day one of employment.
Second, every student that completes a program also gets a dedicated team of professional experts that will coach you to be the best version of yourself during your job search.
Third, all of our courses are flexibly-paced and 100% online — designed around your own unique life circumstances so school never gets in the way of other priorities.
Plus, Calbright comes at no out-of-pocket cost to you. Even the cost of the exams to receive industry-recognized certifications (such as the CompTIA A+, Security+, and Salesforce Certified Administrator exams) in your program of choice are covered.
We also offer resources that include (but are not limited to) technology support through our Chromebook and WiFi hotspot lending library; career counseling; and mental health services. All this and more make Calbright a great choice if you’re looking to level up your skillset.
It is really free? How?
Yes! All of our programs are currently free thanks to public funding from the State of California. That includes program tuition, testing costs, and technology resources like laptops and WiFi devices from our lending library.
Because our programs are free, we don’t need to offer financial aid.
Is Calbright accredited?
Yes! Calbright was granted accreditation by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission in July 2023, more than a year ahead of the deadline provided in the College’s founding legislation. Accreditation is an important consumer protection that validates the integrity and quality of the College’s academic programs and operations.
How long does it take to enroll and start classes?
Starting an application is easy! If you’re ready to begin your journey with us, click here. If you still have questions or would like to get in contact another way, you’ve got plenty of options.
You can always reach out to success@calbright.org and someone from our team will get back with you via email ASAP.
You can also use the webchat function on our homepage, call us at 1-833-956-0225, or text us at (510) 330-1817.
How long will the Community Health Worker program take to complete?
Calbright’s Community Health Worker program is built around the needs of our adult learners. This means you can take your courses when it works with your schedule – whether that’s after your kids have gone to bed, over the weekend, or between shifts at work. As part of your program, you will have two internships to apply your Community Health Worker learnings to develop hands-on skills, facilitated by Calbright’s workforce partner.
No one should have to be in college alone, and at Calbright you’ve got a team working with you, supporting your success. Our student support team will work with you when you begin the Community Health program to create a realistic timeline to guide you, which is typically ten to twelve months to complete the program.
What job training programs do you offer? What makes them unique?
We currently have seven online, flexibly-paced training programs: IT Support, Cybersecurity, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platform Administration, Data Analysis, Project Management, Network Technology*, and Medical Coding**.
These programs are the first of many, with each fitting into wraparound services designed to prepare you for success in the job market.
*Please note that Network Technology is a pilot program and currently closed to new enrollees.
**Please note that we are currently not accepting new applications into the Medical Coding program.
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