141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

289532
Leveraging, convening, training, and funding: New partners and grant models to support health impact assessment in Minnesota

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 3:10 PM - 3:30 PM

Bethany Rogerson, MS , Health Impact Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Washington, DC
Katie Hirono, MPH , Health Impact Project, Washington, DC
In the past five years, a diverse set of organizations in Minnesota have completed twelve health impact assessments (HIA) to include health data and considerations in land use planning decisions at the local and state levels. With funding from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, the Health Impact Project—a national HIA initiative and a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts—strategically supports state and local health agencies and nonprofits to expand health impact assessment practice in Minnesota. This year, to ensure that Minnesota organizations were well equipped to screen for HIAs, we contracted with a technical assistance provider to host two trainings and provide limited one-on-one technical assistance prior to a Minnesota-specific competitive grant opportunity. This funding model supports three recently launched HIAs.

Expanding on the existing interest and capacity in HIA projects, the Health Impact Project also funds the development of sustainable, self-supporting HIA programs at the regional and state levels. Through this work, we aim to develop the relationships, systems, structures, and funding mechanisms that facilitate and maintain cross-sector collaborations, and ultimately lead to more routine consideration of health in decision making.

This approach has the potential to serve as model for other regions and states interested in building HIA capacity. Using Minnesota as an example, we will present the model and discuss challenges, opportunities, and next steps to building HIA programs, and the expansion of HIA activity throughout the state.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe how local and state agencies, community-based organizations, and grant-makers are partnering to support health impact assessment programs. Discuss the opportunities for building self-supporting, sustainable health impact assessment programs at the local and state levels.

Keywords: Funding, Health Assessment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As the senior associate at the Health Impact Project, I have experience serving as a funder and technical assistance provider to health impact assessment grantees. Additionally, I have managed the national competitive call for proposals process to support HIAs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.