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

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.