Community Health Workers
21-1094.00
Bright Outlook Updated 2026

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.

Sample of reported job titles: Communicable Disease Liaison, Community Health Coordinator, Community Health Outreach Worker, Community Health Program Coordinator, Community Health Program Representative (Community Health Program Rep), Community Health Promoter, Community HIV Education Specialist (Community Human Immunodeficiency Virus Education Specialist), Community Navigator, Community Nutrition Educator, Health Program Specialist

Occupation-Specific Information

Tasks

  • Report incidences of child or elder abuse, neglect, or threats of harm to authorities, as required.
  • Monitor nutrition of children, elderly, or other high-risk groups.
  • Maintain updated client records with plans, notes, appropriate forms, or related information.
  • Contact clients in person, by phone, or in writing to ensure they have completed required or recommended actions.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to self-care, such as diabetes management.
  • Refer community members to needed health services.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to improving general health, such as diet or exercise.
  • Develop plans or formal contracts for individuals, families, or community groups to improve overall health.
  • Advocate for individual or community health needs with government agencies or health service providers.
  • Identify the particular health care needs of individuals in a community or target area.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to risk or prevention of conditions, such as lead poisoning, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), prenatal substance abuse, or domestic violence.
  • Attend community meetings or health fairs to understand community issues or build relationships with community members.
  • Provide feedback to health service providers regarding improving service accessibility or acceptability.
  • Distribute flyers, brochures, or other informational or educational documents to inform members of a targeted community.
  • Perform basic diagnostic procedures, such as blood pressure screening, breast cancer screening, or communicable disease screening.
  • Identify or contact members of high-risk or otherwise targeted groups, such as members of minority populations, low-income populations, or pregnant women.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to sanitation or hygiene, such as flossing or hand washing.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to diagnostic screenings, such as breast cancer screening, pap smears, glaucoma tests, or diabetes screenings.
  • Advise clients or community groups on issues related to social or intellectual development, such as education, childcare, or problem solving.
  • Conduct home visits for pregnant women, newborn infants, or other high-risk individuals to monitor their progress or assess their needs.
  • Teach appropriate parenting behaviors to individuals or families.
  • Assist families to apply for social services, including Medicaid or Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
  • Teach classes or otherwise disseminate medical or dental health information to school groups, community groups, or targeted families or individuals, in a manner consistent with cultural norms.
  • Advise clients or community groups to ensure parental understanding of the importance of childhood immunizations and how to access immunization services.
  • Administer immunizations or other basic preventive treatments.
  • Provide basic health services, such as first aid.
  • Collect information from individuals to compile vital statistics about the general health of community members.
  • Interpret, translate, or provide cultural mediation related to health services or information for community members.
  • Transport or accompany clients to scheduled health appointments or referral sites.
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Occupational Requirements

Work Activities

  • Documenting/Recording Information — Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
  • Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Performing for or Working Directly with the Public — Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
  • Making Decisions and Solving Problems — Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
  • Working with Computers — Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
  • Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People — Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates — Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
  • Assisting and Caring for Others — Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
  • Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events — Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
  • Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings — Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
  • Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
  • Communicating with People Outside the Organization — Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
  • Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
  • Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge — Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
  • Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards — Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
  • Thinking Creatively — Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
  • Processing Information — Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
  • Analyzing Data or Information — Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
  • Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others — Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
  • Training and Teaching Others — Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
  • Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others — Getting members of a group to work together to accomplish tasks.
  • Developing and Building Teams — Encouraging and building mutual trust, respect, and cooperation among team members.
  • Providing Consultation and Advice to Others — Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.
  • Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others — Handling complaints, settling disputes, and resolving grievances and conflicts, or otherwise negotiating with others.
  • Developing Objectives and Strategies — Establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.
  • Coaching and Developing Others — Identifying the developmental needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or otherwise helping others to improve their knowledge or skills.
  • Scheduling Work and Activities — Scheduling events, programs, and activities, as well as the work of others.

Detailed Work Activities

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Work Context

  • Contact With Others — 98% responded “Constant contact with others.”
  • E-Mail — 100% responded “Every day.”
  • Telephone Conversations — 100% responded “Every day.”
  • Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams
  • Deal With External Customers or the Public in General — 69% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 65% responded “Every day.”
  • Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals — 55% responded “A lot of freedom.”
  • Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team — 11% responded “Important.”
  • Importance of Being Exact or Accurate — 12% responded “Fairly important.”
  • Coordinate or Lead Others in Accomplishing Work Activities — 22% responded “Important.”
  • Freedom to Make Decisions — 27% responded “A lot of freedom.”
  • Spend Time Sitting — 58% responded “More than half the time.”
  • Written Letters and Memos — 74% responded “Once a week or more but not every day.”
  • Frequency of Decision Making — 44% responded “Once a week or more but not every day.”
  • Time Pressure — 29% responded “Every day.”
  • Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results — 22% responded “Minor results.”
  • Physical Proximity — 46% responded “Slightly close (e.g., shared office).”
  • Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers — 40% responded “Moderate responsibility.”
  • In an Enclosed Vehicle or Operate Enclosed Equipment — 40% responded “Every day.”
  • Exposed to Sounds, Noise Levels that are Distracting or Uncomfortable — 27% responded “Every day.”
  • Health and Safety of Other Workers — 41% responded “Moderate responsibility.”
  • Public Speaking — 17% responded “Once a week or more but not every day.”
  • Indoors, Not Environmentally Controlled — 30% responded “Once a year or more but not every month.”
  • Level of Competition — 39% responded “Slightly competitive.”

Experience Requirements

Job Zone

Title
Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Education
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Related Experience
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Job Training
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Job Zone Examples
Many of these occupations involve coordinating, supervising, managing, or training others. Examples include real estate brokers, sales managers, database administrators, graphic designers, conservation scientists, art directors, and cost estimators.
SVP Range
(7.0 to < 8.0)

Training & Credentials

State training
Local training
Certifications
Find certifications nationwide
State licenses

Apprenticeship Opportunities

Example apprenticeship titles for this occupation:

  • Community Health Worker
  • Community Health Worker (Nof)
  • Wellness Coach

Specific title(s) listed above are vetted by industry and approved by the U.S. Department of Labor for use in a Registered Apprenticeship Program.

Start your career and build your skillset. Visit Apprenticeship.gov to learn about opportunities related to this occupation.

Worker Requirements

Software Skills

Hot Technologies are requirements most frequently included across all employer job postings.
In Demand skills are frequently included in employer job postings for this occupation.

Essential Skills

  • Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Active Learning — Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
  • Reading Comprehension — Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Monitoring — Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Writing — Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Learning Strategies — Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.

Transferable Skills

  • Social Perceptiveness — Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Service Orientation — Actively looking for ways to help people.
  • Complex Problem Solving — Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Coordination — Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
  • Instructing — Teaching others how to do something.
  • Judgment and Decision Making — Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Persuasion — Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
  • Time Management — Managing one's own time and the time of others.
  • Management of Personnel Resources — Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
  • Systems Analysis — Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
  • Systems Evaluation — Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.

Knowledge

  • Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
  • Medicine and Dentistry — Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
  • Psychology — Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
  • Therapy and Counseling — Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
  • Computers and Electronics — Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
  • Education and Training — Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
  • Administration and Management — Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Education

How much education does a new hire need to perform a job in this occupation? Respondents said:

  • Bachelor’s degree required for some jobs
  • Associate’s degree or other 2-year degree required for some jobs
  • Master’s degree required for some jobs

Worker Characteristics

Abilities

  • Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Written Comprehension — The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Near Vision — The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Inductive Reasoning — The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Fluency of Ideas — The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Category Flexibility — The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Information Ordering — The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Originality — The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.

Interests

Interest code: S
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  • Social — Work involves helping, teaching, advising, assisting, or providing service to others. Social occupations are often associated with social, health care, personal service, teaching/education, or religious activities.
    • Social Service — Work involves providing social services and assistance to improve the well-being and social and psychological functioning of children and adults.
    • Health Care Service — Work involves providing health care services to individuals to include the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of diseases and other forms of illness or impairment.
    • Teaching/Education — Work involves teaching through lectures, discussions, and demonstrations in one or more subjects.
    • Professional Advising — Work involves providing expert advice, coaching, and counseling on topics such as careers, educational opportunities, and educational and professional development.

Work Styles

  • Optimism — A tendency to exhibit a positive attitude and positive emotions at work, even under difficult circumstances.
  • Sincerity — A tendency to be genuine and sincere in interactions with others at work, without concern for personal gain or self-interest.
  • Empathy — A tendency to show concern for others and be sensitive to others' needs and feelings at work.
  • Social Orientation — A tendency to seek out, enjoy, and be energized by social interaction at work.
  • Cooperation — A tendency to be pleasant, helpful, and willing to assist others at work.
  • Integrity — A tendency to be honest and ethical at work.
  • Dependability — A tendency to be reliable, responsible, and consistent in meeting work-related obligations.

Workforce Characteristics

Wages & Employment Trends

Median wages (2025)
$24.93 hourly, $51,850 annual
State wages
Local wages
Employment (2024)
65,100 employees
Projected growth (2024-2034)
Much faster than average (7% or higher)
Projected job openings (2024-2034)
7,800
State trends
Top industries (2024)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data and 2024-2034 employment projections . “Projected growth” represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2024-2034). “Projected job openings” represent openings due to growth and replacement.

Job Openings on the Web

State job openings
Local job openings

More Information