Who’s Who? 3 Ways that Regional Health Connectors Differ from Community Health Workers
To truly improve the public health system in Colorado, we must strengthen community health. Both Regional Health Connectors (RHCs) and Community Health Workers (CHWs) work to improve the health of their communities – but they do so in different ways. Here’s what you need to know about these two critical roles.
(L-R) RHCs Megan Wise, Angela Rodriguez, Jamie Fanselow, and Kayana Casias at the RHC retreat in May 2024.
1. RHCs work with partners at the systems level. CHWs work with individuals and families.
CHWs provide direct support – health education, care coordination, social services – to individuals within their community. They are a trusted messenger in the communities they serve, offering resources and supporting individuals as they navigate the healthcare system. In the daily life of a CHW, they work on the front lines in close connection to healthcare and community providers, collaborating with people like doctors, nurses, and social workers to share resources and improve patient care. Many CHWs work in multidisciplinary teams or community groups to provide preventive care and health education.
On the other hand, RHCs are conveners. Rather than working with individuals, RHCs excel at spotting needs or gaps across a community or region. They connect partners from multiple fields to coordinate programs or initiatives that address those needs. They strengthen coordination across the systems that keep us healthy by connecting clinics, community-based organizations, local public health organizations, and other partners. These clinic-community linkages improve health across a population and create stronger, more effective networks to address community health challenges.
RHCs also build, support, or provide capacity within other organizations – often with high turnover –that connect across the public health system. RHCs are the eyes and ears across these organizations, bringing back information and providing resources and solutions they learn from their networks. When needed resources are not available in the local community, they catalyze partnerships to fill these gaps. Their work also helps prevent the duplication of efforts, saving valuable time and money that can be used for other public health initiatives.
Both CHWs and RHCs work to improve social determinants of health such as harm reduction, food access, behavioral health, and transportation. While CHWs support individuals in accessing resources and overcoming barriers to care, RHCs support system changes to impact social determinants of health across communities. For example, a CHW might help a patient address substance use, while an RHC might work to expand access to care for substance use for an entire region, affecting hundreds or thousands of people.
2. RHCs work across regions. CHWs are embedded in communities.
While both RHCs and CHWs are often from the areas they serve, their scope of influence varies. A CHW often serves people in a specific neighborhood or community, equipping them to address individual health needs. Colorado’s growing CHW workforce is embedded within numerous organizations within a community.
In contrast, there is only one RHC per region in each of Colorado’s 21 Health Statistics Regions, covering multiple counties. This wider geographic scope enables RHCs to address broader trends impacting population health.
The 21 Colorado Health Statistics Regions are aggregations of counties developed by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Health Statistics Program in partnership with state and local public health professionals.
3. RHCs leverage their diverse professional and lived experiences for their role. In addition, CHWs train to develop core competencies.
CHWs use a set of core competencies in their roles, including but not limited to patient/client advocacy, communication skills, promoting healthy lifestyles, individual and community assessment, health insurance basics, and professional boundaries. They also bring valuable lived experience to their roles.
To develop these competencies, Colorado offers several CHW training programs that prepare trainees to complete the Colorado Health Navigator Competency Assessment and become registered CHWs. Beginning in July 2025, registered CHWs will be eligible for Medicaid reimbursement – a major step towards increasing support for CHWs and their communities.
RHCs, on the other hand, do not require formal training to do their work, though many seek additional learning opportunities and have completed other training to strengthen valuable skills such as coalition or meeting facilitation, relationship building, practice transformation, systems change, and more. RHCs focus more on building relationships and leveraging their diverse professional and lived experiences within their roles. Through Trailhead Institute’s RHC Program Office, RHCs engage in learning communities and receive ongoing technical assistance and community engagement support from Trailhead’s Senior Program Manager.
CHW Kathryn Washington gives a talk on trauma and advocating for mental health in underrepresented communities.
Both work toward the same goal: a healthier, more connected community.
CHWs and RHCs both address significant gaps in our healthcare system and together increase access to critical resources across communities in Colorado. Both roles center collaboration and advocate for better health and well-being, truly bettering the spaces where we all live, work, and play.
Learn more about the work Trailhead does to support RHCs here.
Learn more about CHWs and explore training programs across Colorado to join this exciting workforce helping people in their communities live healthier lives. Since 2023, Health Resources & Services Administration, Trailhead Institute, the Patient Navigation and Community Health Worker Training Program, and The Alliance of Colorado Community Health Workers, Patient Navigators and Promotores de Salud have expanded access to hands-on training and apprenticeships to strengthen Colorado’s CHW workforce through the HRSA Community Health Worker Training Program. Learn more about the work Trailhead does to prepare Colorado’s next generation of public health leaders here.
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