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The Colorado Public Health Workforce Collaborative2022-10-26T23:06:27+00:00

Colorado Public Health Workforce Collaborative

Program Overview

The Colorado Public Health Workforce Collaborative (CPHWC) is a partnership of organizations providing structure and support for the field of public health through coordination and collaboration across partners leading workforce initiatives in the state of Colorado. Comprising partners from public health, governmental, academic, and nonprofit sectors, CPHWC was convened by Trailhead Institute in April of 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis to support the scaling of Colorado’s disease containment workforce. The mission of CPHWC has since evolved to focus on broader workforce priorities in the field of public health, the primary of which is ensuring that Colorado has an experienced, diverse, ample, inclusive, and innovative workforce to address public health challenges for years to come.

Explore Key Milestones

Trailhead convened CPHWC in April 2020 to support the urgent need to increase the number of people working in the field of public health as contact tracers, case investigators, resource coordinators and several other positions at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As persistent health disparities exacerbated by the pandemic have highlighted the need for the public health workforce to evolve, the work of CPHWC has expanded to strategically envision how the field may leverage increased public awareness and funding from federal, state and local agencies to ensure that Colorado has an experienced, diverse, ample, inclusive, and innovative workforce to address public health challenges for years to come. Additionally, CPHWC seeks to address the widespread, persistent burnout being experienced by public health practitioners and explore policy, funding and structural supports needed in order to sustain, retain and accelerate those within the public health workforce.

CPHWC is proactively exploring initiatives focused on:

  1. Strengthening public health workforce system alignment and coordination
  2. Improving public health communication strategies
  3. Collecting and monitoring public health workforce data
  4. Developing and enhancing training and career pathways
  5. Cultivating effective recruitment and retention strategies
  6. Implementing policy and organizational structures for a future workforce with a health equity-based lens

The Colorado Public Health Workforce Collaborative is comprised of members from the following partner organizations:

  • The Alliance of Colorado Community Health Workers, Patient Navigators, and Promoters de Salud
  • Boulder County Public Health
  • Central Colorado Area Health Education Center
  • City and County of Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE)
  • Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials (CALPHO)
  • Colorado Cross-disability Coalition
  • Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE)
  • Colorado Health Institute (CHI)
  • Colorado Hospital Association
  • Colorado Medical Society
  • Colorado Safety-net Collaborative
  • Colorado School of Public Health
  • Denver Prevention Training Center
  • Immunize Colorado
  • Kiowa County Public Health
  • Metro Denver Partnership for Health (MDPH)
  • Patient Navigator Training Collaborative
  • Prowers County Public Health and Environment
  • Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment
  • Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center (RMPHTC)
  • The Health Education and Resource Institute (THEARI)

As Featured in Trailhead’s Newsletter

Learn more about CPHWC initiatives as covered through past newsletters.