Learn It
Live It
Share ItAdvocacy and Capacity Building
in the Academy
📢 Welcome, future CHW!
Speak up with people and build community power. This unit is 10 hours of CHW Pro training across video lessons, group practice, this eBook and the Qwest station.
By the end you can
- Advocate with a client and help them advocate for themselves
- Support a community to name and act on a shared problem
- Follow your employer's rules on political activity
AZ scope areas: Advocating for individuals and communities; Building individual and community capacity · AZ core competencies: Advocacy; Capacity-building
Advocacy and Capacity Building
Individual advocacy
Speak up with a client, with their permission, when a system is not working for them. The best advocacy also builds self-advocacy: help them practice what to say so they can do it next time.
Community advocacy
Some problems are bigger than one person: a bus route, a missing sidewalk, a clinic that closes at 5 p.m. CHWs help residents gather facts and stories and bring them to people who can make changes.
Know the rules
Educating leaders about a community need is different from lobbying for a bill or a candidate. Nonprofits and public agencies have rules about political activity. Follow your employer's policy.
Advocacy and Capacity Building continued
Capacity building
Build skills and leadership in others so the community can keep going without you. Train neighbors, share tools, and step back as people step up.
Start with strengths
Every community has assets: people, groups, places, culture and skills. Listening sessions, coalitions and photo projects help residents lead the work.
Words CHWs Use
Speaking up for a person's or a community's needs.
A person speaking up for their own needs.
Growing the skills and leadership of people and groups.
A group of organizations and people working toward a shared goal.
No shade at the bus stop
Patients who take the bus to the clinic wait in summer heat with no shade or bench. Two older patients have nearly fainted this month.
Your CHW steps
- Listen to riders and gather their stories
- Collect simple facts: how many riders, what times, how hot
- Bring residents together to agree on one goal
- Help residents prepare to speak at a public meeting
- Follow up with the decision makers and report back to residents
In the Qwest, the steps are shuffled. Put them in the best order to help the client and earn your LIVE It coins.
Keep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlockCheck Your CHW Skills
- The CHW speaks for the client every time
- The client speaks up for their own needs
- The doctor decides
- The family takes over
- Nothing
- A lawyer
- The client's permission
- A news reporter
- Doing everything for the community
- Building a new clinic
- Raising your own salary
- Growing the skills and leadership of others
- Follow your employer's policy
- Do whatever you want
- Ask a client
- Post about it online
- A community's problems
- A community's strengths
- Outside experts
- Funding only
Answers are on page 11. In the Qwest this is the Boss Quiz — score 80% to earn the station badge.
Keep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlockStation 7 Qwest Lab
Every challenge uses this unit. Each one earns Live It coins and moves you toward the next CHW rank.
Keep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlockTeach It Forward
The fastest way to master a skill is to teach it. Your Share It challenge:
- Name one strength in your neighborhood and tell someone how it could help solve a problem.
- Use teach-back: ask them to explain it in their own words.
- Post what you learned (no client names) in your group or the Share It Studio to earn SHARE It coins.
Keep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlockRecord What Changed
Log one row per client goal during your practicum (up to 130 hours). A site supervisor initials each row. Record counts and minutes, never private health details.
| Date | Client goal (no names) | C3 role | Outcome | Minutes | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Outcome codes: SC screening completed · RM referral made · RC referral closed (loop confirmed) · AK appointment kept · CB coverage or benefits application submitted · HE health education delivered.
Keep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlockAnswer Key
- B. The client speaks up for their own needs — Building self-advocacy is a goal of good advocacy.
- C. The client's permission — Advocate with permission.
- D. Growing the skills and leadership of others — Help others lead so the work lasts.
- A. Follow your employer's policy — Employers have rules about political activity.
- B. A community's strengths — Start with what is strong.
Source: Community Health Worker Pro, Force for Health Academy (2026). CHW certification, scope and payment rules vary by state and change; check your state's current rules. CHW Pro is a training program, not a state certification.
Keep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlock12 units. 160 hours.
Each eBook pairs with a video lesson in the Force for Health Academy and a station in the CHW Qwest.
theforce.health/community-health-worker · FFH Virtual LibraryKeep going: Advocacy and Capacity Building
The rest of this eBook — the scenario, unit check, Qwest lab, practicum log and answer key.
Get this eBook · $9.99All 12 eBooks + Ambassador membership · $49CHW Pro learners and Ambassadors: this series is included.Sign in to unlock