Community Health Workers
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.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Social Perceptiveness
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Learning
- Writing
- Monitoring
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Psychology
- Therapy and Counseling
- Computers and Electronics
- Education and Training
- Administration and Management
What the work involves
- Advise clients or community groups on issues related to improving general health, such as diet or exercise.
- 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.
- Advise clients or community groups on issues related to self-care, such as diabetes management.
- Advocate for individual or community health needs with government agencies or health service providers.
- Attend community meetings or health fairs to understand community issues or build relationships with community members.
- Contact clients in person, by phone, or in writing to ensure they have completed required or recommended actions.
- Distribute flyers, brochures, or other informational or educational documents to inform members of a targeted community.
- Identify the particular health care needs of individuals in a community or target area.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Social, Enterprising, Investigative.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (56% of expert ratings)
- Related experience
- Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years (31.2%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (31.8%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Community Health Workers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 97% of occupations compared | 98% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 95% of occupations compared | 69% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Moderate | Higher on teamwork than 58% of occupations compared | — |
| Freedom to make decisions | Low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 68% of occupations compared | — |
| Time pressure | Moderate | Lower on time pressure than 54% of occupations compared | — |
| Conflict situations | Moderate | Higher on conflict situations than 58% of occupations compared | 42% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Moderate | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 56% of occupations compared | — |
| Consequence of error | Very low | Lower on consequence of error than 87% of occupations compared | — |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: moderate
- Conflict situations: moderate
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: moderate
- Consequence of error: very low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 1.81%
- Constant contact with others: 98.19%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 31.17%
- Extremely important: 68.83%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 1.08%
- Important: 10.99%
- Very important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 10.99%
- Limited freedom: 10.99%
- Some freedom: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- A lot of freedom: 26.94%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Time pressure
- Never: 0.71%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 1.08%
- Once a month or more but not every week: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a week or more but not every day: 24.9%
- Every day: 29.01%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Conflict situations
- Never: 4.27%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 42.16%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 17.08%
- Once a week or more but not every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Every day: 10.28%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 4.27%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 30.81%
- Once a month or more but not every week: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a week or more but not every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Every day: 0.37%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 28.07%
- Fairly serious: 30.46%
- Serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Very serious: 0.37%
- Extremely serious: 0.71%
n = 16, Incumbent 08/2026
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O*NET-SOC 21-1094.00 · SOC 21-1094 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8