WHAT WE DO

The CHW-CRE uses popular education as a theoretical framework, an organizing philosophy, and an educational methodology. Also referred to as “people’s education,” popular education creates settings in which people most affected by inequities can share what they know, learn from others in their community, and use their knowledge to create a more just and equitable society. Popular education and the CHW model grew out of many of the same historical roots and share key principles, such as the ideas that people most affected by inequity are the experts about their own lives, and that experiential knowledge is just as important as (and sometimes more important than) academic knowledge.

The Center provides popular education workshops; facilitation; and mentoring to build the skills of researcher/evaluators, CHWs, their colleagues, and other interested parties to use popular education to actualize community-engaged research and evaluation in all aspects of their work.