C5 - Community Health Worker Ambassadors: Community-based Leaders Improving Perinatal Health in South Carolina

Sunday, May 7, 2023

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM CST

Location: Galerie 3

Moderator(s)

Andrea Heyward, MHS, CHW (she/her/hers)

Director, Community Health Worker Institute
Center for Community Health Alignment
Columbia, South Carolina, SC

PDF Handouts Slides

Primary Presenter(s)

RS

Romaine Stephens, CLC, CHW

Community Engagement Specialist
Family Solutions

Presenter(s)

RS

Rebekah Shilling, CHW, CLC, CEIM, CPST, FPHW, LCCE (she/her/hers)

Community Health Worker Ambassador
Center for Community Health Alignment
West Columbia, SC
AP

Amber Pendergraph-Leak, Community-based Doula

Executive Director
BirthMatters

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are frontline public health professionals who share lived experiences with priority communities. Their unique ability to bridge services and communities is a promising approach to address health inequities and improve community health outcomes. A growing workforce, CHWs have a variety of titles and roles, but a common core of qualities - the most important of which is their exceptionally close relationship with the community.

In South Carolina, the CHW Ambassador program ensures that CHWs’ community voice and lived experience is actively integrated in the decisions made about policies, programs, and investments that affect them. This panel will discuss how the CHW Ambassadors and the EACH Mom and Baby Collaborative partnered to ensure that perinatal CHW training, technical assistance, and program design incorporates the communities’ and CHWs' assets, needs, and perspectives.