Community Health Worker Certification
Home Visitor Training

The Santa Fe Community College Community Health Worker (CHW) Certification program is cross-walked with home visiting training. This course teaches students all basic skills to become a home visitor and to earn a CHW Certificate from the New Mexico Department of Health. The course is offered Spring and Fall semesters, is fully online and is offered in English or Spanish cohorts.

The course and certificate are designed to prepare individuals to work as home visitors in any home visiting program and are not specific to First Born® and More.

Who Can Benefit?

It’s designed for anyone interested in home visiting, including home visitors, early interventionists, and those exploring careers in early childhood.

Course Highlights

  • Learn foundational skills to be a successful home visitor or community health worker.
  • Earn 10.5 higher education credits and receive a comprehensive home visitation training. Credits from this class nest within the requirements for an AA in Public Health at Santa Fe Community College.
  • Complete all coursework in one semester with two, eight-week classes (CHW 131 and CHW 132).
  • Utilize online learning to create a community of learners from across the state of New Mexico, and beyond. There is one class per week, via Zoom. Students complete all other content through an online learning platform, through a weekly discussion board, quizzes and reflection papers. This format allows students to complete the semester while working full-time.

Instructor

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Marisol Trevizo
Trainer and Translator

Marisol Trevizo has lived in Santa Fe, NM for over half her life. She loves Santa Fe because it is a beautiful city full of art and diversity. She has been married to her wonderful husband for many years and she has an amazing son who is now in pre-school. She has worked as a home visitor since 2020, when she completed her Community Health Worker/Home Visiting Certification through Santa Fe Community College.

“Before taking this course, I did not have a clear idea of the elements of home visiting or what being a home visitor entailed, but now I feel I have a deeper understanding.”

– Student testimonial

Learning Objectives:

  1.  Apply the role and responsibilities of the home visitor to ethics in  practice, client privacy, client rights, and client observation.
  2.  Demonstrate communication skills that are sensitive to individual age, gender, culture, condition, and family role.
  3.  Describe coordination of services for clients and communities.
  4.  Demonstrate interpersonal skills in building positive, effective client relationships that promote learning, growth and self-efficacy.
  5.  Identify and describe elements of home and home visiting safety and relevant infection control practices.
  6.  Demonstrate accurate home visit documentation and information entry into the home visiting data base.
  7.  Apply the home visitor role to educating families on parenting opportunities and challenges in the prenatal, postpartum, infant and toddler periods.
  8.  Demonstrate effective relationship building and coaching skills that educate, guide and empower families.
  9.  Identify and analyze how parallel process affects participants in a relationship with regards to emotional regulation.
  10.  Demonstrate effective communication and interventions for participants requiring support and redirection in a parallel process.
  11. Demonstrate time management skills needed in managing visits, documentation, ongoing training, and supervisory and team meetings.
  12.  Analyze the Home Visitor’s role in supporting family stability and capacity building through community knowledge and assessment.
  13.  Describe other opportunities for the home visitor role and demonstrate how to be successful in starting a related career.