This article focuses on the lived experiences of those implementing community health worker (CHW) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based in an upper mid-west state, this qualitative case study is bounded by the state-level context and two distinct local case sites—one rural and one urban—and includes the experiences of five CHWs, two program directors, and a state-level administrator. The acute crisis response galvanized the ongoing need for CHWs, not only because they are trusted health messengers, but because they advocate for—and organize with—communities to address inequalities and inform public health institutions. Author-practitioners described personal and community identity as intertwined, a perspective in solidarity with decolonized approaches to humanistic psychology. Highlights discussed include: (a) Personal relationships motivated author-practitioners to join the pandemic response; (b) All pandemic response efforts were interconnected with social determinants of health; (c) The pandemic was as an opportunity to do things differently with more flexibility, personally and organizationally; and (d) Privately funded opportunities enabled local areas to implement quick responses, which influenced eventual state-level responses. All authors described structural racism as a constant context of this work. This article fills gaps in the literature related to the implementation of crisis responses and CHW programs.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) disproportionately affects military Veterans, who are more likely than the general population to experience chronic pain. A community-academic partnership launched a community-engaged research (CEnR) project designed to train Veteran peer mentor specialists to prevent and reduce opioid abuse among Veterans. A series of focus groups were conducted to obtain community input for the development of an opioid prevention curriculum to be utilized by peer mentor specialists. The focus group participants' experiences contributed to nuanced perspectives that fostered appreciation of knowledge and service gaps by using a CEnR approach. The themes that emerged informed a curriculum with key concepts related to opioid abuse and recovery for peer mentor specialists providing peer support for Veterans. Integrating research with community input and partnerships optimizes the opportunity to address aspects of OUD experienced by Veterans and closes a significant gap in this area of study and practice.

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