Other Training Opportunities

Whole Body Approach to Health Program: IPHA, in partnership with the Department of Nutrition and Public Health at Benedictine University, is hosting a professional development program titled 𝑊ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ, which is designed to equip health educators and promotors with the tools to foster healthier relationships with food, movement, and bodies among the communities they work with. There are four free virtual sessions on Wednesdays, August 13 through September 3, from 8:45 – 10:00 AM, and an optional in-person session at the IPHA Annual Conference on September 9. Continuing education contact hours (CECH) are available. Click here to learn more and register.

Expanding the Community Health Workforce Through Partnership and Purpose
ICC Launches New CHW Credential with Local and Statewide Collaborators

Illinois Central College (ICC) is proud to announce the launch of its newly expanded Community Health Worker (CHW) credential, a program grounded in collaboration and designed to meet the growing needs of both learners and employers across Illinois.

This milestone is more than just an academic update — it’s the result of strong partnerships with key public health and healthcare organizations, most notably the Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA) and local Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The development of this new credential has been made possible in part through Noncredit Strategies at Work funding provided by the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB).

From Local Collaboration to Statewide Impact

What began as a focused and continued partnership between ICC and OSF HealthCare in Peoria has grown into an effort to elevate the CHW profession across the state of Illinois. Over time, ICC has worked closely with IPHA, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the Illinois CHW State Workgroup to ensure that its training program reflects the Illinois Department of Public Health’s CHW Core Competencies.

These collaborative efforts have shaped a curriculum that now includes 100 hours of classroom-based learning and 80 hours of fieldwork—a significant leap from the original 24-hour model. The goal is to ensure that CHW training is comprehensive, meaningful, and rooted in the real-world needs of communities across the state.

Meeting Community Needs Through FQHC Partnerships

Federally Qualified Health Centers play a vital role in providing accessible care to underserved populations. ICC’s partnerships with local FQHCs have been instrumental in designing fieldwork opportunities that allow learners to gain hands-on experience in high-impact community settings. These placements ensure that students are building essential skills and contributing directly to the health and well-being of local residents. This mutual exchange—students gaining experience while FQHCs expand their workforce capacity—is a model of community-based learning in action.

A Credential with Momentum

The enhanced CHW Credential includes a range of stackable certifications to boost career readiness:

• Certificate of Completion aligned with future state CHW certification requirements
• Mental Health First Aid Certification Training
• Trauma-Informed Care Certificate
• CPR certification
• Beginning Fall 2026: 3 college credits toward ICC’s Health Information Technology (HIT) Applied Science Degree

Stronger Together

The success of ICC’s CHW program is a direct reflection of the strong, cross-sector relationships built between community colleges, public health leaders, and healthcare providers.

“We are so grateful for the guidance and partnership of IPHA and the support of our local FQHCs,” said Dr. Kari Schimmel, Corporate and Community Education Dean at ICC. “They help ensure our curriculum isn’t just meeting state standards—it’s meeting community needs.”

By working together, ICC and its partners are not just training Community Health Workers—they’re helping to build a more equitable, responsive, and connected health system for all Illinoisans.

Ready to Get Started?

Thanks to Noncredit Strategies at Work funding from the Illinois Community College Board, the Fall 2025 semester of the CHW credential may be available at no cost to both employers and learners. This is a unique opportunity to invest in the future of your workforce and your community—without the financial barrier.

 Click here to register.

Take the next step toward a rewarding career that makes a real difference in your community.

BA NIA Inc.

BA NIA Incorporated is a non-profit reproductive and birth justice organization located on the southside of Chicago. They have been serving families throughout Chicagoland for over 30 years. Their mission is to reduce maternal and infant mortality one birth at a time, by providing education, advocacy, and direct service to the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQIA+ communities throughout the city.

BA NIA’s scope of work with CHWs has been focused on recruitment of services within their direct service areas on the southside of Chicago. A hybrid approach to recruitment is used. CHWs not only utilized traditional methods of recruitment, such as phone calls and guerrilla marketing, but they also worked in settings that allowed them to directly communicate with the client base that is in need of services. Within this framework, they have been able to gain knowledge, recruit clients, and speak with confidence about the services provided, while also conducting research on other wrap-around services and resources.

BA NIA’s work with CHWs has been impactful in many ways. The CHWs have been able to utilize the skills they learned from their respective programs’ curriculum. They have gotten out of their comfort zones by using new skillsets that they did not know they possessed, such as public speaking and networking. Because of this impactful and meaningful work with the CHWs, BA NIA has been able to gain new clients, educate the community, establish healthy outcomes, and work within their mission, which is to reduce maternal and infant mortality one birth at a time.

To learn more about BA NIA Inc. you can visit their website and follow them on Facebook or Instagram.

Highlighting Chastity Mays: Leading Cross-Trained CHW and Doula Initiatives with the Birth Equity Seed Grant in Southern Illinois

Chastity Mays, MS.Ed, CD(DONA), CHW, has led efforts in health equity and birth justice for over 10 years throughout Southern Illinois. Recognizing the critical role of peer relationships in supporting positive health outcomes and building stronger communities, she leverages her combined experience as both a Community Health Worker (CHW) and a doula to provide exceptional clinical and community-based care.

This spring, in partnership with CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health and supported by funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Birth Equity Seed Grant, Chastity successfully recruited and trained eleven new Doula-CHWs. This initiative highlights the powerful alignment between these two professions, demonstrating how cross-trained peer professionals can significantly advance health equity.

Doulas offer physical comfort, emotional reassurance, essential education, and advocacy throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum periods, helping clients navigate complex healthcare systems. CHWs work within communities to connect individuals to vital resources, promote health education, and advocate for systemic improvements in healthcare.

Under Chastity’s dedicated leadership, these cross-trained doula-CHWs provide continuous, personalized care tailored specifically to family needs. Their integrated approach bridges critical gaps in prenatal care, promotes ongoing health education, and ensures families receive effective advocacy within healthcare settings.

Chastity Mays’ innovative work through the Birth Equity Seed Grant underscores the significant impact of integrating CHW and doula roles, leading to better maternal and infant health outcomes, greater access to healthcare, and more resilient communities across Southern Illinois.

The Straw That Broke Us: Tyler Perry’s Latest Film and the Quiet Crisis of Black Mental Health by Robert J. Holmes

Tyler Perry’s new film Straw doesn’t just tell a story — it holds a mirror to the silent struggles in Black households, particularly for single mothers who carry the weight of everyone else’s healing while neglecting their own. It’s not just a movie; it’s a moment. A wake-up call. A reminder that many of us are walking around carrying trauma so normalized, we no longer recognize it as pain.

The protagonist, a Black single mother, breaks — not in a loud, cinematic crash — but in a slow unraveling that too many of us recognize. The unpaid bills, the unspoken grief, the emotionally absent partners, the trauma passed down through silence. For some viewers, Straw may be a dramatization. But for countless Black women, it’s Tuesday.

The Unseen Weight: Trauma as Normalcy

In many Black communities, resilience is praised while vulnerability is silenced. We wear strength like armor, but what happens when that armor corrodes from the inside? What happens when survival mode becomes a personality? When anxiety looks like “just being strong” and depression sounds like “I’m tired, that’s all”?

PTSD in the Black community doesn’t always come from war — it comes from living in fight-or-flight for decades. From systemic racism. From raising children while healing from your own childhood. From watching sons die in headlines and daughters shrink in a world that doesn’t see their softness. And from generations of silence around mental health.

My Mother Was the Blueprint

When I watched Straw, I couldn’t help but think of my mother.

She made it happen for her three children, no matter the cost to herself. She worked over 16 hours a day, six days a week. Paid tuition out of pocket. Made sure we had not just what we needed — but even what we wanted. She came home and cooked. Cleaned. Held everything together like it was second nature.

She never cried. She never asked for help. She always held her head high.

What kept her grounded was us — her kids. And she used every moment she had to teach us not just how to survive in this world, but how to live in it. Her strength wasn’t just in what she did — it was in what she gave.

Her support system — friends, faith, and a small circle of elders — was everything. And sometimes, that’s all you need to keep pushing through. But that kind of support is rare now. The village has gotten quiet. People are less likely to help, and it feels like everyone’s out for themselves. There aren’t any grandparents anymore. Too many kids are raising themselves with screens and silence.

Mental Health is a Community Matter

What Straw does so powerfully is ask us to pause and pay attention. It invites a long-overdue conversation: not just about what happened to us, but what we’ve normalized.

• That anger may be unhealed grief. 
• That silence may be dissociation. 
• That fatigue might not be physical—it may be depression. 
• That “she’s so strong” might be code for “she has no choice.” 

The trauma isn’t always loud. Sometimes it looks like perfectionism. Or avoidance. Or people-pleasing. Or the inability to sit still with your own thoughts. And if we never name it, we never heal from what continually breaks us.

So Where Do We Go from Here?

We need safe spaces for storytelling, therapy that understands cultural context, and community dialogues that don't shame vulnerability. We need to check in on our strong friends. We need to tell Black single mothers they deserve rest, healing, and joy — not just survival.

Straw reminds us that we must create room for the breaking point — so it doesn’t break us.

Because healing isn’t weakness. It’s the most radical act of love we can offer ourselves and each other.

If this story resonates with you, share it. Reflect on it. Start the conversation in your family, your church, your group chat. Because mental health is not just personal — it’s communal.

For more information and resources on Minority Mental Health, visit:

• U.S. Food & Drug Administration
• Mental Health America
• CDC
• Prevention Integration Center

Have a safe month,

Tracey Smith, Associate Executive Director for Public Health Practice at IPHA, Director of the CHW Capacity Building Center

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. 

We strive to keep CHWs, their employers, educators, and allies informed and connected. If you would like to contribute information for a future newsletter, please contact Mariah Menietti at mmenietti@ipha.com. We look forward to showcasing ways in which CHWs are making an impact in Illinois.