Healthy Together Northwest Strategic Planning

About the Program

Category: Planning (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

In June 2008, Hennepin County Public Health Promotion (PHP) provided the staffing to implement a one-year, $10,000 planning grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Minnesota to form a unique collaborative partnership. The goal was to promote health equity in northwest Hennepin County communities faced with challenging issues due to increasingly diverse racial, ethnic, and immigrant populations. Called Healthy Together Northwest (HTNW), this coalition was formed to inspire social, institutional and political involvement in promoting environments and opportunities that support and sustain healthy behaviors. To improve community resilience and engage broad participation, HTNW emphasized the influence of social determinants of health rather than focusing on health indicators such as obesity or tobacco use. Five key objectives were identified for HTNW. These included engaging immigrant communities in a community visioning process, increasing the capacity of immigrant-led organizations to promote health, increasing communication within and across communities, increasing commitment to local, cross-sector and cross cultural collaboration and identifying sustainable strategies to reduce health disparities. What is most significant is the way HTNW engaged communities and worked with them as equal partners in determining the best and most equitable approaches to addressing disparities and promoting health. The initiative benefited greatly from both the experience and knowledge of community leaders and research data from Hennepin County-sponsored population health surveys.