Community Health Worker Outreach Initiative (CHWOI)

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) established the Community Health Worker Outreach Initiative (CHWOI) in October 2020 to mobilize grassroots community outreach to ensure that our most vulnerable residents can access accurate, up-to-date information to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and reduce barriers to COVID-19 vaccination. CHWOI creates a coordinated community-centered system of care that provides targeted outreach and support to communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. CHWOI’s focus is to deliver in-language, culturally appropriate services to communities through the dissemination of health information, providing tangible supports such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitizer, and connecting residents to COVID-19 related services (e.g., transportation, vaccination appointments, testing, etc.). Community outreach is conducted via a strategic, data-driven approach where agencies engage community members in the most highly impacted communities. Local residents are recruited and trained to implement this on-the-ground intervention. From October 2020 through February 2022, CHWOI has trained over 1,000 CHWs who have conducted over 750,000 outreaches, reaching over 3.5 million individuals and scheduling over 12,000 vaccination appointments. Over 1.8 million face coverings and 800,000 hand sanitizers have been distributed while 100,000 referrals to ancillary services have been made.