CHNA.org is offered to organizations, communities, and agencies responsible for developing community health needs assessments to guide the design of effective implementation strategies for improving the health of their communities:

• Hospitals and health systems, with a particular relevance for critical access hospitals
• United Ways and community-based organizations (CBOs)
• State and local health departments
• Community investors, including philanthropy, community development finance institutions (CDFIs), and commercial banks and savings institutions
• Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and other social service agencies (e.g. child care and senior services)
• Grassroots civic organizations (e.g., neighborhood associations)
• Community action agencies (CAAs) dedicated to empowering low-income and underserved populations

Value Proposition

CHNA.ORG is intended to serve as a resource for a broad spectrum of community stakeholders. A brief listing of shared and stakeholder-specific value propositions are as follows:

For All Local Stakeholders

• Access to data/information in a format that is easy to understand.
• Opportunity to build common understanding of major health concerns.
• Opportunity to leverage resources and develop strategies that are mutually reinforcing and focused in specific geographic communities.

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Hospitals

• Substantial reduction in costs and staff time for CHNA data collection, analysis, and development of reports.
• Access to the 'evidence base' that highlights shared ownership with stakeholders from other sectors to address the root causes of persistent health problems in communities.
• Increased resources/staff time available for program design, implementation, and evaluation.

Local Public Health Agencies

• Leverages limited resources to fulfill assessment core function through partnerships with local hospitals and other stakeholders.
• Provides an evidence base and means to build broader public support for public health functions and strategies to address health inequities in local communities.
• Creates the opportunity to build shared ownership for community health improvement with other sectors (e.g., business, financial institutions, law enforcement, faith community, etc.)

Community Members/Community-Based Organizations/Advocates

• Provides an evidence base that enables community members to engage public and private sector institutional stakeholders in terms that are more equitable.
• Increases understanding of determinants of health and ability to make a compelling case for shared investment.
• Enhances ability (combined with other public reporting mechanisms) to assess the roles and relative contributions of organizations, initiatives, and public policies.

Community Health Centers

• Leverages limited resources to fulfill Section 330 assessment through partnerships with local hospitals, public health agencies, and other stakeholders.
• Builds broader understanding of determinants of health in communities served by CHCs.
• Provides evidence base and imperative for more explicit coordination of services with other health care providers.

Funders

• Leverages limited resources for periodic community health assessments and investments.
• Provides evidence base to validate broad definition of health and collaboration across economic sectors.
• Offers a tool that enhances the opportunity to provide leadership as a non-biased convener of diverse stakeholders.
• Provides a means to track impact and outcomes of investments over time

Finance Institutions

• Informs investments and activities related to the Community Reinvestment Act
• More explicitly connects the work of banks, trusts, Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFI’s) and other related entities - to the work of hospital community benefit and health and social well-being initiatives.
• Provides a means for alignment and outcomes tracking of investments made across different fields and sectors.

CHNA.ORG is powered by IP3, the Institute for People, Place and Possibility, a not-for-profit organization based in Columbia, Missouri. IP3 also powers the Community Commons and an array of data, learning, and performance improvement platforms for leading national organizations, philanthropies and governmental agencies. The CHNA.org data engine, is the product of over a decade of site development and refinement by the Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems (CARES) at the University of Missouri, Columbia. In the last two years, the IP3 team, and scientists at CARES have partnered with a broad spectrum of public and private sector stakeholders at the national, state, and regional level to bring this impressive GIS data platform and associated tools to the general public.

Current collaborative partners include:

Conveners:

• Kitty Hsu Dana, United Way Worldwide
• Jean Nudelman, Kaiser Permanente
• Jim Pearsol, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)

Scientific Leads/Technical Advisors:

• Bridget Catlin, University of Wisconsin/County Health Rankings & Roadmap
• Kevin Barnett, Public Health Institute
• Paul Stange, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Workgroup Members:

• Andrew Bazemore, MD, Robert Graham Center
• Michael Bilton, Association for Community Health Improvement, American Hospital Association
• Jessica Curtis, Community Catalyst
• Dave Dyjack, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
• John Gale, University of South Maine
• Charlotte Kahn, Boston Indicator Project
• Charlotte Kent, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Bill Kassler, MD, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
• Tyler Norris, Kaiser Permanente
• Rashid Njai, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Gianfranco Pezzino, Kansas Health Institute
• Mary Pittman, Public Health Institute (PHI)
• Julie Trocchio, Catholic Health Association
• John Whittington, MD, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Vondie Morre Woodbury, Trinity Health
• Andrew Webber, National Business Coalition on Health

Staffing:

• Project Management: Roxanne Fulcher - Institute for People, Place, and Possibility (IP3)
• Site Development/Technical Leads: Chris Barnett, Yan Barnett, Chris Fulcher - Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems (CARES)

Support:
Initial support for CHNA.org is being provided by Kaiser Permanente and IP3, with technical assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We are grateful to the many leaders and organizations across the country (see list above) who are generously investing their time, talents and resources in this unprecedented national partnership and resource.