Local Health Departments in Oregon, Ohio, and Texas Awarded $17,000 Each

Washington, DC, April 7, 2021 —The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from the Climate and Health Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has announced the 2021 Climate and Health Adaptation Demonstration Sites.

NACCHO has awarded the Clackamas County Public Health Division, OR, Franklin County Public Health, OH, and Harris County Public Health, TX with $17,000 each to supplement ongoing climate change and health adaptation initiatives in local health departments.

The Clackamas County Public Health Division is using the grant to update and expand the Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties’ (tri-county) Regional Climate and Health Benchmark Report. The report findings include data on climate-related health impacts, which can be used by public health departments to understand racial and health disparities. The data can then be used to enhance support on adaptation planning, climate change policy development, and community preparation for extreme weather events. The funding will allow the tri-county partners to update and build upon existing work, add new indicators, strengthen statistical and racial analysis, and develop and implement a communication strategy based on the data.

Franklin County Public Health is using the grant to dedicate the time of a newly hired Sustainability Health Educator to focus on climate change and climate-related activities. Through this funding, Franklin County Public Health will be able to conduct community outreach to assist in developing and implementing climate change adaptation and mitigation projects, and coordinating with communities and partners. In addition, Franklin County Public Health will be able to build an evidence base and increase awareness to ensure that climate change issues are addressed and incorporated within their community health assessments and community health action plans.

Harris County Public Health is using the grant to focus on phase two of CDC’s BRACE Framework, which is disease burden projections. During this phase, Harris County will combine climate change projects and current climate-related disease data to produce estimates of the expected heat-related disease burden within Harris County under various future climate scenarios. Harris County Public Health will collaborate with the Houston Advanced Research Center, a local nonprofit research hub that provides independent analysis on energy, air, and water issues. Harris County Public Health plans to use the estimated projections to create interventions and strategies focused on mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change among their residents.

For more information on NACCHO’s climate change work, visit NACCHO’s webpage.

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About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation’s nearly 3,000 local health departments. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.

Local Health Departments in Oregon, Ohio, and Texas Awarded $17,000 Each