Hiring PWLLE Within Local and State Health Departments

This tool identifies key elements for health departments to consider when hiring People With Lived and Living Experience (PWLLE), from identification and description of job roles and responsibilities to recruitment and interviewing. The tool discusses the specific challenges to hiring PWLLE within government agencies — including human resources policies on educational requirements and criminal background checks — and reviews examples of innovative pathways health departments have created to hire PWLLE as full-time health department staff and as contractors or consultants for specific initiatives. The target audiences for this tool are human resources departments and leadership within substance use-related departments.

This publication was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $248,980 with 100% funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. government