Two NCC Staff Get CHW Certified

Nevada Cancer Coalition now has two staff members who are certified Community Health Workers. Valerie Martinez and Jorge Arambula, both cancer outreach coordinators for NCC, earned their CHW certification in November.

Both Valerie and Jorge are navigators with NCC’s ThriveNV program and work with NCC members and the community to promote cancer prevention, early detection and quality of life to Nevadans. Through the CHW training, they were able to build their skills to become more effective in all aspects of their work.

Community health workers are on the front lines as trusted community members who can serve as a connected between their community and health and social services providers. They help to facilitate access and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.

In the 40-hour training, Valerie and Jorge focused on building their skills in communication, service coordination, outreach and engagement, capacity-building, teaching and health promotion, advocacy and cultural competence.  

Both said their favorite part of the program was working on a variety of case studies and determining how they’d approach a situation with a client.

“There are many different ways to solve the problem, and everyone had different ways they’d tackle the situation, so it was pretty cool,” Jorge said of the case study activities.

Valerie added that engaging with other CHWs in training was a great opportunity. She also said she was happy to add more ideas to her “toolbox” for working with people in her community.

Learn more about CHW training and certification from the Nevada Certification Board.