Lessons learned from a statewide community-based public health initiative

The Healthy Maine Partnerships (HMP) Initiative is a community-based public health initiative established by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (MCDC) in January 2001 to create local intervention sites dedicated to addressing tobacco, tobacco-related chronic diseases, and associated risk factors. The MCDC provides funding, technical assistance and guidance to support the local sites' efforts and to build and enhance the public health infrastructure across the state. The 28 community coalitions are expected to accomplish this work through the development and implementation of policy and environmental/systems changes at the local level. Through community engagement, the HMPs serve as public health entities in communities and build strong relationships with community-based and tribal organizations, schools, worksites and youth groups. The implementation of the Initiative is evaluated by a multi-disciplinary team, contracted by the state, with expertise in epidemiology, public health, biostatistics, and health informatics. As part of the overall evaluation, the Team used two methodologies to evaluate how the Initiative has enhanced the public health infrastructure across Maine: (i) key informant interviews with leaders in state agencies and non-governmental partners; and (ii) web-based surveys among state staff; community staff; and external Initiative stakeholders. Areas of focus were (i) coordination of efforts and resources; (ii) programmatic and policy decisions; (iii) provision of funding and program management; and (iv) provision of technical assistance. This presentation will discuss the evaluation findings and their implications on building and sustaining community partnerships as part of a comprehensive public health infrastructure.