Development of Texas's First Chinese American Community Health Worker Certification for Family Health History-Based Cancer Prevention.

This article focuses on the development and implementation of the first Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS)-certified community health worker (CHW) program in Mandarin, designed to provide family health history (FHH)-based cancer prevention education and services for Chinese Americans, among whom cancer is the leading cause of death. The 160-hour program trained 46 Chinese American CHWs who subsequently delivered FHH-based cancer prevention services to 1,129 Chinese Americans in Texas, addressing a critical gap given the low number of certified Chinese American CHWs prior to this initiative. The program included online training, assignments, internships, mentoring, and in-person workshops, and was well received by trainees who demonstrated significant knowledge gains and reported applying their skills in the community. This initiative contributes to building a culturally and linguistically competent public health workforce aimed at reducing cancer disparities in an underserved population.