Penn Center for Community Health Workers: Step-by-step approach to sustain an evidence-based community health worker intervention at an academic medical center

Community-engaged researchers who work with low-income communities can be reliant on grant funding. We use the illustrative case of the Penn Center for Community Health Workers (PCCHW) to describe a step-by-step framework for achieving financial sustainability for community-engaged research interventions. PCCHW began as a small grant-funded research project but followed an 8-step framework to engage both low-income patients and funders, determine outcomes, and calculate return on investment. PCCHW is now fully funded by Penn Medicine and delivers the Individualized Management for Patient-Centered Targets (IMPaCT) community health worker intervention to 2000 patients annually.