During the month of January, NACCHO’s Project Public Health Ready (PPHR) recognized 34 local and regional health agencies for their ability to plan for, respond to and recover from public health emergencies. Six agencies from Florida, New York, Tennessee, and Virginia earned PPHR recognition for the first time, and 28 agencies from Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia achieved PPHR re-recognition status. PPHR recognition reflects an agency’s dedication necessary to complete the application process and commitment to public health preparedness. All of these agencies will be awarded plaques at a reception at the 2017 Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA in April. Read the full feature blog for more about this year’s PPHR recipients.

In addition, NACCHO staff have been working to provide technical assistance to those agencies going through the re-submission process as well as 2017 applicants, state leads, and reviewers.

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Project Public Health Ready (PPHR) is a criteria-based training and recognition program that assesses local health department (LHD) capacity and capability to plan for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies. PPHR aims to protect the public’s health and strengthen the public health infrastructure by equipping local health departments with sustainable tools to plan, train, and exercise using a continuous quality improvement model. Visit the NACCHO PPHR webpage to learn more about applying to become PPHR recognized or an applicant reviewer.