North Carolina Community Health Assessment Initiative (NC-CHAI)
History and Purpose
The North Carolina Community Health Assessment Initiative is a joint project between the State Center for Health Statistics (SCHS) and the Office of Healthy Carolinians (OHC). A community health assessment involves collecting and analyzing data from a variety of sources to learn about the strengths and needs of the people and services within a community.
With this project, we aim to build the capacity of communities to use such data for public health program planning and policy making. To achieve this goal, the SCHS and the OHC are working to connect and strengthen the assessment activities (formerly known as the Community Diagnosis process) of county health departments, local Healthy Carolinians task forces, and other community organizations.
Partnerships
Countless communities across North Carolina are engaged in projects to assess the health of their residents. However, a great deal of overlapping work takes place in many of these communities. For example, within the same county, the health department, the Healthy Carolinians task force, and the hospital each could be working on an independent assessment of their residents' health status. NC-CHAI's role is to integrate such local efforts and to promote development of a single community health assessment partnership within each county.
Such partnerships save on the data collection and analysis required, reduce potential confusion caused by multiple studies of single counties, and broaden citizens' involvement in assessment. NC-CHAI aims to equip local partnerships with the skills and tools needed so they can assess the health of their communities; tailor effective public health programs and policies; and evaluate the impact of such interventions.
Project Goals
- Promote the development of community health assessment partnerships
- Build the technical skills of local partnerships to use data for program and policy decisions
- Engage community residents in local assessment, planning, and evaluation activities
- Make a wide range of data for assessments readily available on the Web
Role of the State Center for Health Statistics
- Collect, analyze and distribute data on the health of North Carolinians
- Use Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to visually show data in map form
- Consult on data gathering, analysis, interpretation and use
- Provide training to communities involved in assessment and evaluation projects
Resources for Communities
- County Data Book with a wide range of county- and state-level statistics
- A Community Assessment Guide Book keyed to the 2002 County Data Book with "how to" tools that help communities turn data into information that can be used to develop effective public health programs and policies (pdf format - 1.5 MB)
- A Healthy Carolinians Guide for Communities with steps on how to become a certified Healthy Carolinians task force
- A Resource Guide for Community Health Assessment in North Carolina with information about, and Web addresses to, a range of data (.pdf format)
- Annual Inventory for NC 2010 Health Objectives
Contacts
Healthy Carolinians for general program questions or to become a Healthy Carolinians Task Force
Links
Healthy Carolinians - contains training and certification/recertification information, the North Carolina Health Objectives for the Year 2010, contact information, and a profile of each local task force
Some documents are in pdf format which makes reading and printing easier. You may need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print these publications.
Page Last Updated March 18, 2009
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