Key Elements of a Community-Engaged Approach to Evaluating a Nationwide Community Health Worker Program.

A recent multisite, nationwide community health worker (CHW) program in the United States made it possible to conduct a comprehensive evaluation (2021-2024) designed to address existing gaps in the evaluation of CHW interventions. We describe key elements of our approach: using evidence-based frameworks, including community-based participatory research and popular education; centering CHW leadership; using a mixed-methods design; integrating standardized process and outcome measures from the CHW Common Indicators; and using equity-focused principles. When used to guide the evaluation of existing and future multisite, long-term CHW programs, this approach can be expected to increase understanding of how CHWs achieve expected outcomes, how CHW programs can be evaluated consistently with standardized measures, and how evaluation can be designed to help scale up and sustain CHW programs. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(S4):S341-S352. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308659).