The Community Health Worker Research & Resource Center (CHW-RCC) Learning Community aims to foster social support and provide professional development opportunities for staff across the NYU Langone system who work as CHWs and patient navigators, and in similar roles. It has been meeting regularly since September 2018.

Community Health Worker Learning Committee

The Learning Community is guided by its Learning Committee, which consists of 4 to 6 CHW and patient navigator staff who serve for 18 months and set the agenda for Learning Community activities.

Roger Abrams
Community Health Representative, Actions to Decrease Disparities in Risk and Engage in Shared Support for Blood Pressure Control (ADDRESS-BP) in Blacks

Alzahraa (Zizi) K. Ahmed
Community Health Representative and Patient Navigator, Stamp Out Cancer Brooklyn

Gurvinder Singh
Community Health Representative, Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) Study and Diabetes Research, Education, and Action for Minorities (DREAM) Initiative

Erandi Perez
Community Health Worker, NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn

Past CHW Learning Committee members include Rebecca Mead, Ivette Cabrera, Clarissa Rios, Linda Thompson, Sabiha Sultana, Stanley Scriven, Sheila Willis, Sidra Zafar, Wendy Romero, MD Taher, Bosco Kwan, Toka Shalan, Neftali Perez, Karen Rosario, and Shana Johnson.

The CHW Learning Community is made up of CHWs, patient navigators, health educators, and staff in similar titles involved in the following projects and programs across NYU Langone:

• DREAM Initiative
• Arab American Community Health Resources and Needs Assessment
• Patient-Centered Stomach Cancer Prevention In Chinese Americans
• Prostate Cancer Screening
• UPLIFT 2.0
• NYCHA Resident COVID Response Project
• Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Family Support Program
• Beatrice W. Welters Breast Health Outreach and Navigation Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center
• Patient Navigation Center at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn
• ADDRESS-BP

Learning Community members also hail from the following Family Health Centers at NYU Langone initiatives: HIV Program, Project SAFE, Community Medicine Program, and the WIC Program.

Learning Community Activities

Our activities are designed to better support CHWs’ self-care, wellbeing, and other professional needs, as well as provide a forum for sharing personal success stories and enhancing critical competencies.

Community Health Worker Wellness Survey

The CHW Wellness Survey was developed to better understand the needs of the CHW Learning Community as staff adjust to new working environments in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Results of this quarterly survey have been used for program planning.

Mindfully Caring for the Self and Others with Lerner Health Promotion Programs for the CHW Learning Community

To support personal wellbeing and provide continued education to build competencies in integrative health techniques for self-care among CHWs, the Lerner Health Promotion Programs’ integrative health services at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn developed a pilot series of health promotion training and adjunct weekly Health Monday emails. The pilot ran for six weeks.

Learning Community Newsletter

The goal of this quarterly newsletter is to highlight CHWs and patient navigators’ critical role by showcasing professional and personal success stories and Learning Community members’ creative projects. See past issues and join our mailing list.

Webinar Series

Beginning in April 2020, the Learning Community has been hosting webinars on topics of interest identified through CHW Wellness Surveys and by the Learning Committee. Topics included Communicating about COVID-19; COVID-19 Vaccine Safety and Distribution (Town Hall VIDEO); Nutrition and Chronic Disease Management; Mental Health, facilitated by physicians, nutritionists, and a mental health provider from the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone; and Getting Comfortable with Death, facilitated by an end-of-life doula. View available recordings.