Financial Assistance – Community Health Worker training

In September of 2022, the Iowa Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS) Department was awarded a federal CHW training grant that will increase access to CHW training offered by the Iowa Chronic Care Consortium (ICCC). This will allow CHW training to reach CHWs from across the state, thus building resources, resilience, and capacity in communities to address the social needs of under-represented Iowans. The funding supports the training of 288 CHWs over the next three years.

Please Note:

CHWs frequently face some of the same challenges, such as financial, educational, language and other barriers, as the communities they serve. This can mean that pursuing training may not be affordable.

One of the goals of this grant is increasing the diversity of the public health workforce – in particular CHWs – by recruiting, training or employing individuals with similar lived experiences as the communities they serve.
With this goal in mind, if we receive more applications for tuition waivers and stipends than we have available slots for, we will be using predetermined criteria to prioritize applicants.

If you would like more information on these criteria, please contact:

Angie Doyle Scar
Cell: 515-954-9537
angela.doylescar@idph.iowa.gov

Tuition Waivers

While the regular tuition for the CHW Professional Skills training is $988, this HRSA training grant provides a full waiver of this tuition for CHWs that live or work in Iowa or individuals from Iowa that desire to be trained for community health work.

Tuition waivers are available through September 2025 or until grant funds are depleted.

Financial Stipends

Financial stipends in the amount of $2,600 are available for the students. The stipends are provided to help support the ability of students to fully participate in and complete the training program and can be used for things like childcare, internet access, or computers. Stipends will be provided in two equal installments. The first installment ($1,300) will be once the student has completed the first exam in the CHW Professional Skill training, and the second ($1,300) upon the student’s successful completion of the course.

Financial stipends are available through September 2025 or until grant funds are depleted.

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements for the tuition waiver and financial stipend includes:

  • Age 18 and above
  • High school diploma/equivalency
  • US Citizenship
  • Working in CHW role or other frontline role * OR * Desire to enter the CHW workforce/gain skills
  • Employer must allow receipt (applies to financial stipends only)

*The ability to read and understand English language, while not a formal requirement, will be beneficial for the student.

Register for the CHW Professional Skills training