What is a Community Health Worker (CHW) and how to become one, with Tasha Whitaker

Embark on a transformative journey with Tasha Whitaker, a seasoned Community Health Worker whose heart beats for public health education and advocacy. From her initial dreams of trauma nursing to becoming a beacon of hope and change within her community, Tasha's story is a testament to the power of passion and persistence. Uncover the nuanced dynamics of Community Health Workers, the unsung heroes who bridge gaps between healthcare systems and the people they serve. Our conversation is a deep dive into how these trusted liaisons navigate complex webs of resources, while also highlighting the serendipitous nature of career opportunities that can arise from the most unexpected of places.

You’ll Learn

• What a community health worker (CHW) is and how they work to better community health through building relationships within the community
• Tasha’s experience with landing a job as a CHW right out of undergrad 
• The skillsets needed to be successful in community health work
  • Qualifications needed to become a CHW and how they differ depending on where you’re located
• Other pathways that are available for CHWs such as in research, clinical roles, and management and how skills learned from being a CHW prepare you for other roles
• Tasha’s transition from ground work to training others to starting her own professional development company and the work she does now with Crew Wellness LLC

Today’s Guest

Tasha Whitaker is the CEO of Crew Wellness LLC, a Wellness Education Training & Professional Development Company which she founded after a decade of work experience leading in healthcare roles that have impacted federal, state and local public health organizations. Tasha has been featured on ABC 25, KYTX, CBS DFW and highlighted in magazine and print articles for her community engagement and public health expertise. She is sought after for her ability to improve community engagement outcomes through wellness interventions, strategic processes, and training thousands of Community Health Workers to deploy health education for  communities nationally. Through her company Crew Wellness she is impacting not only the communities being served, but also the Crew (staff) providing the services to ensure wellness is prioritized so they can continue to contribute to the positive health outcomes for communities. Tasha regularly consults for companies wishing to gain deeper connections with communities by providing relevant, fun and engaging  professional development training to the crew so they can serve equitably and provide a stellar service to the communities they serve.

Resources

• Connect with Tasha on LinkedIn  
• Learn more about Crew Wellness LLC
• For Americans, learn more at the National Association of Community Health Workers
• Learn more about American state policies
• For Canadians, learn more at the Community Health Workers Network of Canada 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

They are that trusted individual. They built trust with the community. They know how to communicate with them. They know all of the ins and outs of what's going on and how to really make impact and shift mindsets and help lead individuals to those resources. So, community health worker at heart, they are that individual that is helping to increase the capacity of what their community could be and bring others along with them to make impact.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you to build your public health career with. Join us weekly right here, and I'll be here too. Your host, sujani Siva from PH Spot. Hi, tasha, and welcome to the PH Spot podcast. So wonderful to have you here with us today.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Hello, thank you so much for having me so glad to be able to be here.

Speaker 2: 1:00

I was thinking about a topic to actually like write about, and it was about how you can use LinkedIn to network, and I think this is a classic example of that, because you and I met on LinkedIn. You know, we recognize everyone's profile picture and that's how we associate names, I think, to the individual, and so for me it was a picture. I'd see you in the comments, I'd see your posts and then eventually, I think we connected with each other and started messaging each other, and then here we are. So I think you know, networking through LinkedIn definitely works.

Speaker 1: 1:32

I definitely agree. I, you know, love the content that you put out for public health workers and I'm very excited to be able to share the journey and allow that to be something to help others catapult their career.

Speaker 2: 1:47

So, yeah, definitely believe in networking, yeah, and I'm excited to get into it. And I think there is no better person than you to talk about being a community health worker, because I think you kind of have lived it, breathed it, and that's that's where your world is at currently and I think we'll get into that piece in a little bit. But I think for any of our listeners who are maybe starting off in public health or are even maybe looking to transition into a different line of work and they see this role as a community health worker and I think it'll vary depending on where you are a community health worker, but just high level when somebody sees that role community health worker what can they expect in that? Like, what is a community health worker?

Speaker 1: 2:37

Yeah. So this is a topic I'm very passionate about. So I've been a community health worker, I truly believe, all my life. As far as my career, I began this work about 15 years ago and a community health worker is a frontline public health worker. They are that trusted person in the community that has an understanding of what and who the community is, and so many times I like to break it down Like the person in your community who's at the corner store and they know everybody by name, they know everything that's going on, they know how to motivate those individuals to make change in the community. They are liaison. They're that person that you go to for advice. They are in the community boots on the ground to help improve the quality and the structure of that community.

Speaker 1: 3:34

Apha has the definition that a community health worker is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of the community. They have an unusually close understanding of the community served. So when you think about what a CHW is, you think about that person in your community who is the grandmother or who is the aunt, or who is that person at the church or who owns a business in that community that is connected and linked in with everybody. That's what a CHW is Okay.

Speaker 2: 4:08

So I think in my head I was thinking you had to have a specific education path in order to become a community health worker, but it sounds like you don't.

Speaker 1: 4:19

No, not necessarily. You know, when we think about a community health worker, every state is different. I know we'll probably get into this. Every state runs differently, but the perspective of which I'm speaking of is, at the heart. A community health worker is that individual who is probably already serving. You know many times the individuals that I have trained. They've already been doing the work. They just don't necessarily have that certification and that, above all, is truly what makes a community health worker. They are that trusted individual. They built trust with the community. They know how to communicate with them. They know all of the ins and outs of what's going on and how to really make impact and shift mindsets and help lead individuals to those resources. So you know a community health worker at heart, they are that individual that is helping to increase the capacity of what their community could be and bring others along with them to make impact.

Speaker 2: 5:20

Maybe I think we can understand this role a little bit more by hearing your own personal journey and maybe if you can recall years back and I think you said 15 years or more when did you first learn about this field of public health and maybe even, you know, decided that you wanted to be a community health worker and get into this field?

Speaker 1: 5:44

Yeah. So, believe it or not, I went to school wanting to be a nurse. I wanted to be a trauma nurse. I want to be a trauma flight nurse. That was my goal. So I'm way off the path of what I thought I wanted to do and that came through, you know, once I started getting deeper into my courses at my university and once I got to like the health education, health promotion course, I really learned the other side of what that looked like of helping individuals through prevention and education, and that's what I feel in love with.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So after graduation, my first job it was in health education and health promotion and through that job that's how I became a certified community health worker here in the state of Texas, and so that's when I was introduced to the role.

Speaker 1: 6:37

When I was in school I did not hear that term community health worker.

Speaker 1: 6:41

It was all about health education, health educator.

Speaker 1: 6:44

And then, once I got into the first job, that's when I became a CHW and absolutely fell in love with the field of community health workers and what we were able to do and the impact that we were able to do as a team in the community going out into the community and serving individuals, informing them of the resources right in their backyard that they did not know about. I mean literally right in their backyard that they did not know about. And so at this clinic in which I worked at the specialty with diabetes education, and so in the African-American community, diabetes is a very serious chronic disease and so right once I got into the education part, me and my team and my colleagues, we really loved what we were doing and we came at it from a perspective of community, meaning a lot of our courses and our classes were not traditional. We had dancing, we had line dancing, we had potlugs, we did all of these things. That was almost kind of like a mini family reunion when we would hold our classes, because that's how our community related to us.

Speaker 1: 8:03

And I think that when you think about the work that community health workers do and how they are able to make impact, that's it. They are able to connect with individuals differently than maybe a physician or a nurse or the social worker or others.

Speaker 1: 8:22

And those people were on our team. We were a multidisciplinary team but our role was really to build that trust so that they would make their appointments, so that no shows would decrease, so that they had a reason to come to the clinic, so that we were able to provide them that supplemental support in those health education classes. So that's kind of how my career started, with CHWs and being trained as a CHW quite some time ago.

Speaker 2: 8:53

And is that how typically you were getting to the community members by hosting events that they would then attend? Or was there also kind of like the flip side, where you would go and attend events being held in the community as well?

Speaker 1: 9:09

Yes, both, because in order to build trust, it's not just them coming to us, it's us going out to them too. So when they would host events at their church or when they would host events in the community, we showed up as a vendor. We brought screenings, we provided health education pamphlets to those individuals because we needed to be visible, right. We just can't expect for them to come to us. We also have to go out into the community, and that was a huge part of the work that we did. As well is outreach. How are you connecting with those individuals?

Speaker 1: 9:44

And I will say to CHWs, or students that are in class to become a CHW, or even employers when you think about the impact that your CHWs can make, it will be unconventional. It's not going to fit inside of a box in which you may think, because each community is different. I'm talking about the community that I served in South Dallas here in Texas, right, and that would probably be very different than somewhere in another state. And so you have to trust those CHWs to know how to interact with their community and work together to be able to come up with a plan that's gonna be best impactful for those individuals. And also, through building that trust, you're able to bring in those individuals to give you feedback of the gaps.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Maybe you're not seeing on the other side and we did that a lot we collaborated with our patients, with our community members that, hey, we really wanna host this heart health event at our church, but we think that maybe we need to have a DJ, maybe we can offer some fresh fruits and vegetables, bring in the food pantry. We have to be able to listen to those and maybe the way in which you would do it is different, and that's okay because, at the end of the day, we're making impact and we're working together and you'll be able to see something very, very beautiful and impactful when you're able to listen to others and allow them to lead in the way in which they think and really, which they know is once impactful.

Speaker 2: 11:31

That's beautiful and it sounds like one of the best roles to be in, right out of school to really experience public health like on the ground. And I'm curious you're a new grad. I'm assuming that you had very little work experience when you were applying to this role and you were kind of like looking at the job description and then you ended up getting the role and you're starting there. Did you feel like you had the skill set to be a community health worker? I guess I'm asking for individuals who might be in your shoes, who are maybe like newly graduating and they're thinking, oh, I don't know if I could actually like do this role. It involves a lot of skills to really be able to embed yourself within community and it's not something that's taught in the classroom. It's something that you have to experience and you have to learn. I'm curious to hear kind of how you set yourself up for success during those early years.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Thank you for that question. I didn't expect to share this piece and I'm gonna share it. So my approach was once I graduated school I had a hard time finding a job right after school, so I actually went into teaching. I quickly learned that was not my ministry. Okay, pre-k in first grade, no way out. So love teachers. Everybody in my family is mostly teachers.

Speaker 2: 13:01

Love them love them.

Speaker 1: 13:02

I love to teach, but I am not a great school teacher. But that's what I did for about a year, and then my sister actually told me about this position because she saw the work that they were doing on the news and she was like you know, you should really go and check it out. And so I did. I'm the type of person you know I'm going to do my research, and I did, and I felt like the best way for me to see if this was something that I wanted to do would be for me to go to one of their events, and so I did. I went to one of their community events in Cognito. Like you know, one knew me. I just wanted to see like what it looked like, like what did a health fair look like that they were running? And I did, and I absolutely loved it. Well, when I went there, I then went back, probably like a week later, and I went to try and connect with someone who could get me connected to, who I needed to be connected to. So I literally went up there like one, a random day of the week, and I did it. I was able to get in contact with someone. They gave me their card. They gave me their card and they gave me the person's card that I need to talk to and from that point, I emailed her every Monday, and I mean literally every Monday. And then, you know, months later, she emailed me back, the director. She emailed me back and she told me hey, you know, we finally have an opportunity We'd love to bring you in. And I still have this email from. This was what, maybe 13 years ago. I still have the email she emailed me back.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Okay, we went through the interview process and I didn't realize it was like a team interview. So that was like my first experience. I was like, oh gosh. And so I walked in and you know, there's these team of people and they kind of want to know if you're gonna fit with the team and, unbeknownst to me, she had already shared with them that I had been emailing her every Monday. And so the running joke, like after, you know, I got the job and everything, and one of my colleagues was like, so you're very persistent, huh, and we heard about your Monday emails and looks like, oh goodness. So, yeah, that's how it started. You know, I think that when you are a student, you're a new grad and you're seeking a position and you're not getting feedback again. I've said this probably two or three times. You gotta do it the unconventional way.

Speaker 1: 15:38

And so for me it was. I'm just gonna go up there and let them see who I am and trust that you know someone's gonna give me a connection, and that is what happened.

Speaker 2: 15:51

And.

Speaker 1: 15:51

I kept in contact with her and eventually it was months later, but eventually she emailed me back because I was top of mind and I encourage individuals to. You know, doing it this way might not work for you, but when it's not working, reassess and figure out a way in which it does work for you.

Speaker 2: 16:11

I'm so glad you shared that example, because I think we don't think about these unconventional ways to land positions, and what I'm realizing is that employers, when they have somebody that they can kind of recall and have a face to that name and have some sort of rapport, it's almost easier for them to invite that individual to an interview versus going through a stack of 50 resumes, right. And so if you can show up to places where potential employers could be like a health fair and it's a place that they're not expecting individuals to come and pitch themselves for a job at, it's a great way for you to one learn about the organization and then also get your name across. And, like you said, tasha, you're not gonna see some sort of a result or action be taken immediately, but I think eventually that point of contact and that relationship that you're building is going to somehow, you know, land you an opportunity.

Speaker 1: 17:12

I agree, I definitely agree, and in doing that, I learned that that's also a skill when you're working with your patients and your clients. That was practiced even in getting the job, and so once I got the job and I started working more intimately with these patients and these clients, that behavior change takes time.

Speaker 1: 17:37

It is not something that okay, you know you have high blood pressure and today's Monday, by next week it's gonna you're gonna be eating healthy every day that it does not work that way For me, as someone who, when I first started, I was ready to save the world with my little cap on and you know, health education. Here I come and you learn that it takes time. It takes time in, in building that trust and building that relationship. It's gonna be one thing one day sometimes, or one week, one month sometimes, with some clients or patients, and no matter what, though, they are making that change and that behavior change for themselves, and that really is the exciting part that I love to see.

Speaker 1: 18:32

I remember there was this truck driver that I had worked with and he was on the verge of losing his job because his diabetes had gotten so out of control it was starting to affect his vision, and so, you know, as a truck driver, you have to go through certain testings with vision and things like that, and so they submitted for him to come to our class, and I tell you that that was such an impactful patient that I will never forget, because he talked about, really we got down to the root of why he needed to make that change, and his reasoning was for his family.

Speaker 1: 19:10

It was for his family that.

Speaker 1: 19:11

You know, if I lose my job, I can't support my family, and so I was then able to take that and include his family into his meal prepping, include his family into his exercise routine, because now this is becoming something in which we want to support the family, because I know how much this is weighing on you.

Speaker 1: 19:36

So, hey, you guys, let's plan a day to go to the park and go walking, or let's plan a time for you guys to meal prep together, so that it can become something that's not so heavy on just you, because your job, it also impacts your family and I know how much that is impacting you. So, as a CHW, many times you're able to see those deep issues above just the number, and you're able to help them make those lifestyle changes. And you know, a few months went by and before you know it, he's A1C had came down and he was still able to work, and eventually he got his children to start coming up to the rec and, you know, playing and working out, and so that was a beautiful transformation that I will really never forget, because we really worked closely together for a few months and I was able to see such a change in him.

Speaker 2: 20:33

That's amazing. Yeah, having those stories, I think, just keeps you going. You know, despite talking about how change can take so long, just seeing each individual's like milestones as they're hitting it is super inspiring. I heard you talk about lots of different things you know, as you're helping patients and clients at this clinic. Obviously, I think it helped that you had a bachelor's degree in the sciences, so you had that basic understanding. But I'm curious to hear if there were areas that you had to upskill in, because you're talking about nutrition, you're talking about exercise, and did you feel like you had a lot of that training through your degree? Or were there points you know, during your career where you kind of had to do a little bit more learning or go back for any like upskilling in many areas?

Speaker 1: 21:24

Oh, certainly. You know, my degree is in health studies and so promotion needs, assessments, media outreach it was the emphasis, and so I definitely needed those refreshers, and my employer at the time they always provided us a refreshers and as a CHW certified through the state, it's required for you to have continuing education, and so I was always taking, you know, some type of educational course, and then also our team provided in-service courses and opportunities to help us be better trainers as we were teaching those community classes, because many times, even though we were teaching courses in-house, many times we also took that show on the road and we went to other places to provide education and teaching, and so the environment is different and you have to learn how to do that. You know, eventually I became a CHW instructor and so I was able to go through that course and get certified, and that looked a lot different as well, because now we're talking about curriculum development.

Speaker 1: 22:37

We're talking about really diving into adult learners and how they best learn different types of learners, different types of environments. You know, I may be speaking to a class of 10 today and then maybe going to a school speaking to 300 kids, or I may be, you know, be going and speaking at a conference to a hundred adults that are physicians, and then you know all of these clinical people telling them and sharing my story of being a CHW and the impact that we're making in the clinical setting and in the healthcare setting, and so that's different. And so to anyone that's in the CHW, feel that you do want to make that transition. You want to go from being a CHW boots on the ground to now moving into a space of where you are teaching and you're mentoring and being able to share how to level up your skill sets and also impact the community. I would definitely say one mentorship but, also two.

Speaker 1: 23:37

You know you have to do the work as well. I mean, what that looks like is being able to go into a community and communicate and share health education. Just you know, whether it's that 15-minute presentation or a 45-minute presentation, like how you communicate, because each environment is so different and that's something, personally, I had to learn.

Speaker 1: 24:03

You have to learn that skill set of environments being very different and how to quickly change maybe what you thought you were going to present and the way you thought you were going to present based off of that environment. You don't want to stand in front of people you know 30, 45 minutes and you just see that their eyes are lost over. That's what I mean. So if you really start to dive deep in how to teach, train, present, you will gain that experience and gain that skill set and that looks like just going to different environments and teaching and training and learning how to kind of improv in a way that makes impact, so that you're not not being impactful when you're there. You're just there to provide information, to say you did it. You don't want to do that, you really want to make impact. That's something that I would definitely share.

Speaker 2: 25:01

I definitely want to get into more about transitioning from boots on the ground into more like facilitation and training. But one question I did have, and I think you alluded to this at the very beginning. You mentioned that the role of a community health worker varies from region to region. When you started off, UNN got certified to be a community health worker. Is that the typical first step that anybody should consider if they're interested in this line of work? Maybe they have their degree or they're working on their degree, and is the certification the next step? Or should they first get a job in this field and then go for certification? Maybe you could talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 25:48

Yeah, you can do either. Or Again, I'll say that I'm in Texas. In Texas we start training CHWs at 16. At 16 years old I've had them in my course that I train CHWs. You can get your certification at 16 years old. There are high schools that are training CHWs, right?

Speaker 2: 26:12

now.

Speaker 1: 26:14

You can go that way. In many of those students they want to be in a career of public health, in the healthcare arena. That's their first step. They're able to go out into the community, pass out the flyers, let people know about these community events coming up, doing basic health education, those type of things. Then there's individuals that may be in the college arena and they're about to get into the workforce and they want an additional certification. I've talked to those individuals as well and you can definitely do that as well. Or there are individuals that I've trained that are this is the second career for them and they just want to do something totally different. They may not even have a degree.

Speaker 1: 27:05

You don't have to have a degree to be a community health worker. In some states it is a certification in which you do have to go through a certain amount of training. Here in Texas it's a 160-hour certification training. Other states it's less. In some states it's more. It really depends on the state. I'll give you a site for individuals to go to to check their state to see what those requirements are where they are. You just go from there. One, it depends on where you're located, but two, you don't have to have a formal degree to become a community health worker.

Speaker 2: 27:45

That's good to know. Yeah, I think that link will be very, very helpful. I'm getting a lot more curious now about this because I'm based in Canada and I'm very curious about how it works here. I'm going to dig into that a little bit more and see if I can put in some resources for Canada as well. Okay, so I think you talked about that transition. After you spent some time boots on the ground being a community health worker, you transitioned into teaching. You spent over five years as a community health worker at that organization that you were at, and then what was that pivotal point for you? To start training community health workers?

Speaker 1: 28:27

I would say the opportunity came through my employer because our site was a training site and so that became part of the job but is getting certified to train. But at the same time I was ready to grow in my career and so I think that that also had a lot to do with that. I was ready to take on a little bit more leadership and grow more in my career, and I was able to do that. Then I actually ended up moving from that role and I moved into a more clinical role.

Speaker 1: 29:00

So I went from community community-based boots on the ground out in the community doing the health fairs, health promotion, putting on events, hosting classes, teaching, exercise classes I mean literally doing it all and I left there and then I went and I worked at the clinical setting as a CHW, and so I would work along with a physician, went in before the physician, the physician would go in. Then we talked do our assessment, do my referrals, and I did that for a couple of years and I was still training at that time and then I moved to another position where I started working in trauma and injury prevention, and that was a statewide position in which I was able to provide education on trauma and injury prevention. Remember, I told you I wanted to be a trauma nurse, so that kind of aligned with that.

Speaker 1: 29:52

That kind of gave me my thrill, yeah, and I did that for a few years and the beautiful thing about that was that I was able to bring my perspective of a community health worker to traffic safety and that's not something that you see very often is CHWs in that traffic safety arena and so I was really able to hone in into the work that I was doing and be at these conferences and let people know about the work and how CHWs can be integrated into that trauma and injury prevention space, and so that was a very, very exciting time because it was new, but also I was able to merge those two things that I enjoyed doing.

Speaker 1: 30:31

That's also where I was able to start really really honing in on my craft of teaching and training, because that literally was my job. I traveled throughout the state of Texas all the time. That was you know what the job was and I was able to really go a little bit deeper with my facilitation skills and growing and teaching and training and I started creating more curriculum and after that then I decided to start my business, which I provide CHW, ceus, continuing education and I just trusted that. Hey, you know, I really want to do this and I started from there, and that's where we are now.

Speaker 2: 31:16

That's incredible, just building from one to the other, to the other. And is that kind of a typical career path for community health workers? Or have you seen other paths as well that people have taken? You know, after spending maybe five or 10 years on the ground working with the community, do people go to a different role? I'm trying to maybe understand if there are other potential career paths for people to consider. Or is it traditionally? You know, you go from a community health worker, then you go into training and then you sort of move around in different organizations trying to support training of community health workers.

Speaker 1: 32:00

I've seen it different ways. There are people who have gone into you know, go from a CHW. They go to a trainer, like I did. They kind of merge. Not everybody that's a CHW wants to train, though, and I've worked with colleagues who I'm like, oh gosh, you'd be a great trainer, Like I don't want to train. Yeah, you know, that's just about because they don't have an interest in it at all, but for them more of a supervisory management role with their lane, and so I've seen that happen to where they go from a CHW to you know, they've worked there a few years showing those leadership skills. And if you have those leadership skills and that's something you want to do, make sure to share that with your management and make sure that you are putting yourself in a position in which you are able to take on some leadership, to show that you're able to be in that role. And so I've seen them move into you know, CHW supervisor, CHW manager and, you know, go from there. Some individuals they may not want to go into management. They may want to go into training where they may want to go into business for themselves, they may want to become consultants to where they're able to put the experience that they've been able to provide into action through additional programming and giving their insight.

Speaker 1: 33:22

Some CHWs work in research. Their thing is research. They're all about the data, they're all about the numbers. They want to know what the impact is that they're making. There's not a lot of CHWs in research, but I know a couple, and so I think that we're starting to see this beautiful evolution of how CHWs can be utilized in the healthcare system you know away from just in the community.

Speaker 1: 33:48

There's other ways CHWs can be leveraged and utilized as well because, again, they have that trusted relationship with the community and for employers, you know that may be listening and maybe considering how can you implement CHWs into your program, into your healthcare system? I mean there are a plethora of ways. I definitely would guide individuals to the resources that places like Nashua, which is the National Association of Community Health Workers, have. They have a database where it's full of resources on how to implement CHWs into your healthcare system, Some of the best practices that you can utilize and really foundationally go about it the right way to make sure that their careers are sustainable. I think sustainability is a huge, huge issue right now. After COVID, we've seen individuals who lose their jobs because of the grant. Money has dried up, but we want to be able to make sure that the impact is not lost and we want to capture that. We want to be able to put those dollars where CHWs are making the impact so that they can sustain their career as well.

Speaker 2: 35:01

So let's see. Yeah, such an important point. And is there a model where organizations can train individuals already employed within the organizations to be community health workers, Like they don't necessarily need to hire new resources? Have you seen that model? Or is it typically that it's best for an organization to train up and have dedicated community health workers rather than attach that additional role to existing resources?

Speaker 1: 35:35

If you're asking, can organizations train their own? Yeah, yeah, so the organization that I was with, that's what we did.

Speaker 2: 35:43

Okay.

Speaker 1: 35:43

So the healthcare system that I was with we had a training center, and so that training center and this is just here in Texas that training center was approved by the state of Texas, so it has to go through an approval process and any individuals that came into the organization they had to go through our training and get certified and then they would go into their role. And so I think that the beauty of that is that the system knows how they would like to utilize and implement the C-H-W. So in the curriculum that you've built you can tweak it to how you, to the roles in which they will be serving. Now, some individuals in some healthcare system they don't necessarily have that or do that, they just will send them to an outside source to get trained. And so that would be where I would come in, where my business would come in and we train individuals that are seeking to be trained. But some organizations they do go through that process and they have a training center within their organization, but not everybody does.

Speaker 2: 36:53

Okay, good to know, and I think the point you made previous to that topic around the different career paths people could pave as a community health worker, I think it sounds like becoming a community health worker is a really good foundation to then kind of build a path that's suitable to you, right If you wanted to move up into management at the organization that you're at.

Speaker 2: 37:18

Starting off as a community health worker really gets you to understand the community that you're going to serve through that organization. Sounds like you can go into training roles in various different organizations and then, like you did, work for yourself and be self-employed and really focus on the pieces that brought you joy and you really enjoyed and kind of build a career for yourself through self-employment and entrepreneurship, which I think is always fun to talk about because I love that. So for you, I think you started in 2019, that's when you started crew wellness Tell us about how you made that decision and I'm sure it's not an easy one to decide to start working for yourself and not be dependent on a paycheck. So maybe you can talk through what you had to deal with when you were making that transition.

Speaker 1: 38:10

Yeah, so, in full transparency, the position in which I was in, where I was traveling all the time, once COVID hit, that was the end of that, and so I was actually laid off. My entire team or entire department was laid off. And you know, through that time you are trying to figure things out I had already started doing like speaking and engagements and things like that, and that also allowed me some time to really think about the next steps and through that I was able to say you know, this is something that I've been sitting on and that I've been wanting to do, and the opportunity came and I just didn't look back. You know, I started slowly and step by step. I just kept going.

Speaker 1: 39:07

That's the best way to say it, I just kept going Because you know you're in the middle of a pandemic, you don't know what's going on and there's just a lot going on, and so, but I will say that the support that I had from my community, individuals who had known me, and through some of the work that I had already done, oh man, that was such a blessing to know that individuals, they were rooting for me and that they were so amazing to help provide me those resources and though, you know, just mentioning your name in a room and helping you, you know, get referrals and clients and things like that, that really, really meant a lot and those individuals I don't take that lightly at all.

Speaker 1: 39:53

I will say to that that community is huge, especially when you make a decision that, okay, this is something I want to start. I don't know all that I'm doing because I did not go to schools for business at all. I mean, that's a whole other story. I actually did go to school for business but I changed my major, but I ended back up here, so I didn't know all of the things and I still don't. I'm still figuring it out.

Speaker 1: 40:18

I think many of us are, because things just change. And so, yeah, I started that and doing curriculum development and offer for continuing education, and then last year we launched the CHW certification course in which CHWs can get certified here in the state of Texas through my program and I'm very excited about that and excited to offer, you know, wellness workshops for organizations and speaking engagements and just sharing a lot of my love of health and wellness and the CHW work and the impact that CHWs can make, because this is truly a career that I believe in and that I know that this is something that I'm led to do, is my purpose work and I really feel blessed to be able to do it.

Speaker 2: 41:03

That's amazing. Thank you so much, tasha, for just sharing everything about your journey and you know, all the additional wisdom that you shared for anybody even thinking about community health work as a potential career pathway, and I really hope people look into this more. And I think you have lots of resources on your website or your LinkedIn and I think you said you're going to share a few links with us as well that we can throw into the show notes. Are there any other places that people should get more information about you or your journey? I know I saw a YouTube video once about you and that's kind of what motivated me to reach out to you, but curious about whether there's any other hidden gems out there that we should go in and look into just to learn a little bit more about community health work.

Speaker 1: 41:49

Yeah, I definitely recommend individuals to go to the National Association of Community Health Workers website. There is tremendous resources online there and it's all organized state by state, so I would recommend individuals go there as well as receiving articles. They have the largest database of all articles on community health workers online. So if you're looking for any topic, you're going to find it there and to get connected with me don't be a stranger Reach out on LinkedIn and also visit my website, wwwwellnessllccom.

Speaker 2: 42:24

Awesome. Thank you so much, tasha.

Speaker 1: 42:26

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Hey, I hope you enjoyed that episode and if you want to get the links or information mentioned in today's episode, you can head over to phspotorg slash podcast and we'll have everything there for you.

Speaker 2: 42:44

And before you go, I want to tell you about the Public Health Career Club.

Speaker 2: 42:48

So if you've been looking for a place to connect and build meaningful relationships with other public health professionals from all around the world, you should join us in the Public Health Career Club.

Speaker 2: 43:00

We launched the club with the vision of becoming the number one hangout spot dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

Speaker 2: 43:09

And in addition to being able to connect and build those meaningful relationships with other public health professionals, the club also offers other great resources for your career growth and success, like mindset coaching, job preparation clinics and career growth strategy sessions in the form of trainings and talks, all delivered by experts and inspiring individuals in these areas. So if you want to learn more or want to join the club, you can visit our page at phspotorg slash club and we'll have all the information there. And you know, as a space that's being intentionally curated to bring together like minded public health professionals who are not only there to push themselves to become the best versions of themselves, but also each other. And with that I can't wait to see how this is going to have a ripple effect in the world, as we all work together to better the health of our populations and just have immense impact in the world. And I hope you'll be joining us in the public health career club.