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When most people think about CHW careers, they picture someone working in a community health clinic, clipboard in hand, helping patients navigate insurance paperwork. And while that's certainly one version of the role, the reality is far more expansive — and far more interesting. Community health workers are showing up in fire stations, courtrooms, schools, disaster zones, and corporate boardrooms. If you're exploring CHW careers or trying to figure out where you fit in the best jobs in the healthcare industry, I want to show you the settings that rarely make it into standard career guides but desperately need skilled community health professionals.
I've spent years building healthcareers.app and talking with healthcare professionals across dozens of disciplines. One thing that consistently surprises job seekers is just how versatile the community health worker role has become. The pandemic didn't just highlight the importance of CHWs — it permanently expanded the map of where they work and what they do. Let me walk you through seven settings that are actively hiring and often overlooked.
Before we get into specific settings, it's worth understanding why CHW careers lend themselves to such variety. Community health workers are defined less by a rigid scope of practice and more by a core skill set: cultural competency, health education, patient advocacy, and the ability to bridge gaps between underserved populations and the healthcare system. That skill set translates across virtually any environment where people face barriers to health and wellbeing.
Unlike many clinical roles, CHWs don't require a medical license or years of graduate education. Most positions require a high school diploma or equivalent, though many states now offer voluntary or required certification programs. The CDC has long recognized community health workers as a critical part of the public health infrastructure, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects continued growth for health education and community health worker occupations through the end of this decade.
This flexibility is exactly what makes the role one of the best jobs in the healthcare industry for people who want meaningful, community-facing work without a decade of schooling.
Here's where CHW careers intersect with emergency medical service careers in ways most people don't expect. Across the country, EMS agencies and fire departments are embedding community health workers into their teams to address a persistent problem: frequent 911 callers. These are individuals — often elderly, chronically ill, or experiencing homelessness — who call emergency services repeatedly because they lack access to primary care or social support.
Community health workers in these settings do home visits after emergency calls, connect patients to primary care providers, arrange transportation, and help with medication management. Programs like this have been documented in cities including Houston, Denver, and Memphis. The result is fewer unnecessary emergency transports, lower costs for fire and EMS departments, and dramatically better outcomes for patients who were falling through the cracks.
If you're interested in the urgency and pace of emergency medical service careers but want to focus on prevention rather than acute intervention, this hybrid role is worth pursuing. Some agencies list these positions as "community paramedic" or "mobile integrated health worker," so broaden your search terms when looking at job boards.
Jails, reentry programs, drug courts, and probation offices are increasingly hiring community health workers. The logic is straightforward: people involved in the criminal justice system face disproportionately high rates of mental illness, substance use disorders, chronic disease, and housing instability. Traditional case managers are often overwhelmed, and clinical staff may not share the lived experience that makes CHWs so effective.
In these settings, CHWs help recently released individuals connect with Medicaid, find housing, locate substance use treatment, and keep medical appointments. Some work directly inside correctional facilities, providing health education on topics like HIV prevention, diabetes management, and overdose prevention. It's demanding, emotionally intense work — but if you're drawn to serving marginalized populations, few settings offer a more direct impact.
School-based CHW roles are expanding rapidly, particularly in districts serving low-income communities. These positions go beyond what a school nurse typically handles. CHWs in schools conduct family outreach, connect students and their parents to food assistance and housing resources, provide health literacy education, and serve as a trusted bridge between families and the school system.
During the pandemic, many school districts discovered that families needed far more than academic support — they needed someone who understood their culture, spoke their language, and could navigate the social services landscape on their behalf. Those temporary COVID-era positions have, in many cases, become permanent. If you have experience working with children and families, this is one of the most rewarding pathways in CHW careers.
This one surprises a lot of people. Major health insurers — including several Medicaid managed care plans — now employ community health workers as part of their care management and member engagement teams. Their role is to reduce costly hospitalizations and emergency room visits by proactively reaching out to high-risk members, addressing social determinants of health, and ensuring adherence to care plans.
These positions often come with better compensation and benefits compared to nonprofit or grant-funded roles. They may be remote or hybrid, with a combination of phone outreach and in-person home visits. The trade-off is that you're working within a corporate structure, which some CHWs find constraining compared to grassroots community work. But for those who want stability and upward mobility, insurer-based CHW careers are among the best jobs in the healthcare industry when it comes to long-term growth potential.
Natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and public health emergencies all require rapid community engagement — and CHWs are uniquely suited for it. Organizations like the American Red Cross, local public health departments, and FEMA-affiliated programs recruit community health workers to assist with shelter operations, distribute health information in multiple languages, connect displaced families with medical care, and provide emotional support in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point here. CHWs played an essential role in vaccine outreach, contact tracing, and combating misinformation in communities that distrusted official health messaging. This demonstrated their value so convincingly that many emergency preparedness agencies are now building permanent CHW capacity rather than scrambling to recruit during each new crisis. If you're drawn to the intensity and purpose of emergency medical service careers but want a public health lens, disaster response CHW roles offer a compelling alternative.
In many communities — particularly Black, Latino, and immigrant communities — churches, mosques, and temples serve as de facto social service hubs. Faith-based organizations increasingly formalize this by hiring or partnering with trained community health workers to run health screenings, chronic disease management programs, nutrition workshops, and mental health support groups.
These roles require deep cultural humility and often prioritize hiring from within the community being served. The work can feel less like a traditional healthcare job and more like ministry or community organizing, which is exactly the point. For CHWs whose motivation is rooted in faith, service, or a desire to work where institutional healthcare has historically failed, these positions offer profound alignment between personal values and professional work.
Large employers — particularly those with significant hourly or blue-collar workforces — are beginning to integrate community health workers into their employee wellness programs. Warehouse operators, meatpacking plants, agricultural companies, and manufacturing firms have recognized that many of their workers face the same barriers to health that CHWs traditionally address: language barriers, low health literacy, fear of the medical system, and inability to take time off for appointments.
In these settings, CHWs work on-site, building trust with employees, coordinating preventive screenings, facilitating access to company-sponsored health benefits, and providing one-on-one health coaching. It's an emerging niche, but it's growing as employers realize that investing in frontline health navigation reduces absenteeism and workers' compensation claims.
If any of these settings appeal to you, here's practical advice I give job seekers on our platform:
Compensation for CHW careers varies significantly by setting, geography, and funding source. In general, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that median pay for community health workers falls in a range that's competitive with other entry-level healthcare roles, though not at the level of licensed clinical positions. That said, setting matters enormously.
Grant-funded positions at small nonprofits tend to offer lower base pay and less job security. Managed care organizations and health insurers typically pay at the higher end of the spectrum and offer comprehensive benefits. Government-funded roles — including those embedded in EMS or public health agencies — often fall in the middle but may come with pension eligibility and generous paid time off. Corporate wellness positions are still too new to have reliable salary benchmarks, but early indicators suggest competitive compensation, particularly when the employer is a large corporation with established benefits infrastructure.
My advice: don't choose a setting based on salary alone, but don't ignore it either. The best jobs in the healthcare industry are the ones that sustain you financially while aligning with your purpose.
In most cases, no. The majority of CHW positions require a high school diploma or GED, though some employers prefer candidates with an associate degree or relevant college coursework. What matters most is your connection to the community you'll serve, your communication skills, and — increasingly — state certification. Several states now offer formal CHW certification programs that can be completed in a matter of weeks or months.
Both are frontline, community-facing roles, but they differ in focus. Emergency medical service careers center on acute medical response — stabilizing patients and transporting them to hospitals. CHW careers focus on prevention, health education, and addressing social determinants of health. However, the two fields are converging in exciting ways, particularly in community paramedicine and mobile integrated health programs where CHWs and EMS professionals work side by side.
Yes, substantially. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects faster-than-average employment growth for community health workers, driven by increased recognition of social determinants of health, Medicaid expansion in many states, and ongoing investment in community-based public health infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend and brought unprecedented federal and state funding to the CHW workforce.
Some CHW roles — particularly those with managed care organizations — include a remote or hybrid component, such as phone-based outreach and telehealth navigation. However, the heart of the role is community engagement, which typically requires in-person interaction. If remote work is important to you, look at insurer-based or health tech positions that incorporate virtual health coaching alongside traditional CHW functions.
Burnout and funding instability are the two most common challenges I hear about from CHWs on our platform. Many positions are grant-funded, meaning they may disappear when funding cycles end. And the emotional weight of working with vulnerable populations — while deeply fulfilling — can take a toll without adequate support. Seeking roles with sustainable funding, strong supervision, and organizational commitment to employee wellbeing can mitigate both of these risks.
CHW careers are no longer confined to a single template. The role has grown into one of the most adaptable, impactful positions in healthcare — one that meets people where they are, in every sense of that phrase. Whether you're drawn to the adrenaline-adjacent world of EMS integration, the quiet significance of school-based family support, or the emerging frontier of corporate health navigation, there's a CHW path that fits your skills and your values.
We built healthcareers.app to help people like you find these opportunities — not just the obvious ones, but the roles that are reshaping what community health looks like in practice. If you're ready to explore CHW careers beyond the clinic walls, start searching on our platform today. The communities that need you most are waiting in places you might not expect.
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