In 2023, NACCHO funded the Center for Public Health Systems (CPHS) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health to create a toolkit to increase LHDs’ capacity to define, measure, and track progress toward health equity as a part of their performance improvement.
To best inform creation of a useful toolkit, CPHS first conducted an environmental scan in February and March of 2023 of peer-reviewed literature and plans written by public health departments. Next, CPHS held three listening sessions in January and February 2024 with professionals from LHDs across the country. The goal of the listening sessions was to understand LHDs’ working definitions of health equity, their HEPM strategies, and their data sources. Thirdly, much of the content included in this toolkit builds on Measuring What Matters in Public Health, published by NACCHO in 2018. This report provides guidance on building a performance management system, supplemented with templates, worksheets, and stories from the field. We add to this report by focusing specifically on performance measurement (an aspect of performance management) of health equity.
- UMN HEPM Environmental Scan 2024 (PDF)
- UMN Health Equity Performance Measures Toolkit: A Guide for Local Health Departments 2024 (PDF)
Community Health Worker Resources
In 2023, NACCHO funded the Center for Public Health Systems (CPHS) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health to assist LHDs with hiring and retaining community health workers (CHWs). To create the Capacity Building in Local Health Departments: Community Health Worker Toolkit, CPHS, with support from NACCHO, first conducted an environmental scan of available literature on effective hiring and retention strategies for CHWs. CPHS also consulted with subject matter experts, including CHWs and leaders of CHW organizations. Once the toolkit began to take shape, CPHS gathered feedback by hosting a listening session and conducting a feedback survey with LHDs across the U.S. to ensure that the toolkit included relevant information and meaningful guidance. Additionally, CPHS consulted with field experts to create tools and provide examples of CHWs in LHDs. Contributors to the toolkit included Umemba Health, LCC; Nicollet County Health and Human Services (Minnesota); Dakota County Public Health (Minnesota), and the Center for Community Health Alignment (South Carolina).
