The Healing Centered Learning (HCL) program provides an innovative 18-week training for trauma-impacted young adults (18-24) to become dual certified as Community Health Workers (CHW) and Peer Specialists (CPS).  The curriculum combines a trauma-informed care approach with a popular education model that centers trainees and their lived experience as key to their professional development. 

HCL works to prepare young people in Philadelphia to address some of the biggest challenges facing their communities, i.e., poverty, community violence, trauma, and access to culturally relevant behavioral health services. This is done via two key programs: the Community Health Worker Peer Training Academy (Training Academy) and the Experiential Learning Program (ELP).

  

The Community Health Worker Peer Training Academy, or Training Academy, is a 9-week classroom training program where participants work towards two certifications: one as Community Health Workers (CHW), facilitated internally by CNSJ staff, and one as Certified Peer Specialists (CPS), facilitated by organizational partner Mental Health Partnerships, one of only three organizations in PA credentialed to facilitate this training. The purpose of the Training Academy is to expand career pathways for young people who have been excluded from such opportunities, and to increase health services to young children, adolescents, and young adults who are most at-risk for behavioral health disorders due to high exposure to violence and trauma.

  

The Experiential Learning Program, or ELP, is an optional engagement that immediately follows the Training Academy and assigns each registered participant to a 9-week internship where they work directly with community members. Participants spend one day per week working with CNSJ staff, and two days per week on site. This experience helps participants apply their classroom learning and certifications immediately in community-based settings, which is a known strategy for ensuring learners truly understand, know how to apply, and will be able to retain their classroom learning. While this phase of the program is optional to those who complete the Training Academy, an average of 77% of participants take advantage of this opportunity.