Keys to Success: Developing Benchmarks for Sustainable Public Health Institutes

In 2007, The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), with help from the Georgia Health Policy Center, created a Public Health Institute Assessment Tool to measure organizational capacity, leadership and vision in relation to a set of Key to Success developed by the board of NNPHI. The assessment was a beginning step in creating benchmarks and metrics for this group of unique public health non-profit organizations. The tool was piloted on five emerging institute grantees through the Fostering Emerging Institutes Project and provided baseline data of the technical assistance needs and organizational maturity of the grantees. In addition to the tool, a matrix of maturity and typology were created to accurately group all institutes according to capacity and peer support needs. Through support from the CDC, the Georgia Health Policy Center, in coordination with NNPHI, has taken the preliminary tool and begun work on designing a multi year comprehensive technical assistance program that addresses the developmental and sustainability needs of public health institutes in each level of maturity. This session will discuss the preliminary findings from site visits and telephone interviews with public health institute leaders from across the network and will share the latest draft benchmarks developed for public health institutes.