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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Clarissa Hsu, PhD¹, Allen Cheadle, PhD², Bill Beery, MPH¹, Pamela Schwartz, MPH³, George Flores, MD, MPH⁴, and Dave Pearson, PhD¹. (1) Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Group Health Community Foundation, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98101, 206-287-4276, hsu.c@ghc.org, (2) Department of Health Services, University of Washington, 927 30th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122, (3) Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente, One Kaiser Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612, (4) Greater Bay Area Regional Office, The California Endowment, 101 Second Street, Floor 24, San Francisco, CA 94105

Progressive public health departments acknowledge that today's public health threats—health disparities, chronic disease, drug abuse, etc.--require new ways of working with communities. One key approach is for public health departments to work in partnership with communities to empower community members, build community capacity, and increase social capital. The ability of health departments to engage in effective community partnerships is challenging because it requires a drastic change in how local health departments approach their mission and there is no consensus regarding guidelines and best practices. Recognizing this, The California Endowment (TCE) developed the Partnership for the Public's Health (PPH) Initiative to demonstrate one approach to address these challenges. PPH was a six-year initiative to develop partnerships between California communities and local health departments. Fourteen county and city health departments and 39 local community groups (including established service agencies and resident-based organizations) received four-year grants as a part of the $40 million PPH Initiative.

PPH provides valuable insights into the strategies and models PPH funded health departments took to increase their ability to work with community. Data from health departments that made high levels of progress in working with communities lays the groundwork for the development of guidelines and best practices. This presentation will describe nine key dimensions associated with creating a community-friendly health department, including innovative leadership, planning, funding strategies and approaches to data collection. Practical suggestions for creating change as well as implications for future funding and policy development will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation the participants will be able to

• List 4-6 key dimensions in which health departments made changes to better work with community.
• Describe the role of innovative leadership in the theory of change.
• Articulate 4-5 potential policy changes that would increase a health department’s ability to work with community.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation