NEW: Worcester Launches New Health Initiative

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Monday, June 04, 2012

Ashley Klann GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The City of Worcester is maintaining a commitment to public health by launching a City of Worcester Community Health Improvement Initiative. The proposal will take place with help from The City of Worcester Division of Public Health and UMass Memorial Health Care, Inc. along with numerous community partners.

The focus of this new push for the city’s public health is to create a social, economic and health profile of the city and identify assets and priority areas for development in community wellbeing known as a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).

Work on the project will begin in late June and will give a solid idea of areas that need improvement in Worcester. Once development phase is done, organizations in the area will know the next best step.

This month, ten Town Hall Forums will be held to open the subject to the public and encourage community input and present data from the recently completed Community Health Assessment (CHA).

The CHA is an ongoing process of collection, assembly, analysis, and distribution of information on the health needs of the community. This information includes statistics on health status and community health needs.

In February, a Community Health Assessment working group began meeting regularly in preparation for the project. They have taken part in extensive discussions on goals, priorities, and scope.

A CHIP is the development process of a community-wide plan that will set priorities for health improvement and engage organizations to support and implement the plan. The city hopes that the CHIP will serve as a vision for health of Worcester and establish a framework for partners and the community to use in making that vision come to life.

Work on the project will take place over the summer. In July 2012, a working group of over 40 individuals and agencies will meet to begin the formal process of examining the data and priorities. During the month of August, community health imports will be established, goals created and strategies selected in an effort to complete the CHIP.