Community Education Worker (CEW) Program

The Community Education Worker (CEW) Program strives to address inequities in early childhood health and education through increasing the success of families with children from prenatal through five years of age.  The CEW Program supports families by providing culturally–centered and linguistically accessible services, relationship-building and advocacy, resource navigation and engagement with schools, healthcare systems, governmental agencies and other decision-makers.

The CEW program works in five broadly defined cultural groups

African-American, Latino/x/e, Indigenous, Somali, and Myanmar refugee communities. CEWs have all completed the foundational CHW training and are employed by culturally specific community-based organizations. The CEWs work with families with children ages prenatal through age five. The Program addresses the social and structural determinants of educational equity and health that impede the ability of families in marginalized communities to support their child(ren)’s learning and cultivate kindergarten readiness.

CEWs are Cultural Liaisons

A focus of the CEW Program is to increase parents' understanding of the educational system to support their empowerment to advocate for the needs of their children.  CEWs are cultural liaisons between the families they serve and the systems families navigate, working across systems in preparation to better equip them to meet the needs of the families.