Community Health Workers

Also Called:

Community Health Program Coordinator,

Community Health Outreach Worker,

Community Nutrition Educator,

Community Health Promoter

What they do: Promote health within a community by assisting individuals to adopt healthy behaviors. Serve as an advocate for the health needs of individuals by assisting community residents in effectively communicating with healthcare providers or social service agencies. Act as liaison or advocate and implement programs that promote, maintain, and improve individual and overall community health. May deliver health-related preventive services such as blood pressure, glaucoma, and hearing screenings. May collect data to help identify community health needs.

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Human Services

Career Cluster

What do they typically do on the job?

  • Maintain updated client records with plans, notes, appropriate forms, or related information.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to improving general health, such as diet or exercise.
  • Identify or contact members of high-risk or otherwise targeted groups, such as members of minority populations, low-income populations, or pregnant women.

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking.

Dependability

Integrity

Cooperation

Adaptability/Flexibility

Independence

Initiative

Interests

Career interests describe the perspectives and interests of people who enjoy the type of work involved in this career.

Discover what your interests are by taking the Interest Profiler Quiz

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Social

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Enterprising

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Investigative

Knowledge

People who want to pursue this career have knowledge in these areas.

Business

  • Customer service

  • Management

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Education and Training

  • Teaching and course design

Health

  • Medicine and dentistry

Abilities

Whether you have received formal training or not, these types of abilities are helpful in this career.

Verbal

  • Listen and understand what people say

  • Communicate by speaking

Ideas and Logic

  • Notice when problems happen

  • Use rules to solve problems

Skills

People who want to pursue this career have skills in these areas.

Basic Skills

  • Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions

  • Talking to others

Social

  • Understanding people's reactions

  • Looking for ways to help people

Problem Solving

  • Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Work Values

Work values describe how your core beliefs align with those commonly needed for this career.

Relationships

Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.

Achievement

Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.

Independence

Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.

Does this sound like something you'd like to do?

1. Do some research
  • Identify how your interests, values, and strengths match this occupation
  • Talk to someone who works in this field or spend a day job shadowing
  • Use the colleges and training directory to explore programs related to this career
2. Plan your next move

Data for NSI career cards comes from the following: Idaho Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, O*NET, MyNextMove, and Career OneStop