TNCHWA is partnering with TennCare (Tennessee’s Medicaid Program) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to launch a Community Health Worker Program Accreditation initiative. This collaboration aims to ensure agencies adhere to best practice standards, essential for developing quality CHW programs.

Accreditation standards were created to provide a baseline for establishing quality CHW programs. The standards are based on successful CHW programs, research on CHWs’ positive impact on health outcomes, and input from a diverse group of key partners in Tennessee, including CHWs, their supervisors, academic contributors, the Tennessee Department of Health, and state and private agencies and healthcare providers, all facilitated by TNCHWA.

Over the next two years, TNCHWA will implement this accreditation program, initially working with a subset of identified agencies, including smaller organizations and larger hospital systems. These agencies must provide evidence for each of the seven standards and achieve a certain score under each standard to be accredited by TNCHWA. Four programs were accredited after completing a pilot process in the summer of 2024 and the first cohort of additional programs have initiated the accreditation process and will complete in early 2025.

The Seven Standards

• Recruitment and Hiring
• CHW Scope of Work
• Supports for CHWs
• CHW Training
• CHW Performance Evaluations
• CHW Professional & Workforce Development
• CHW Supervision