Online Program

Oral

Health impact assessment (HIA) helps build new collaborations between health and other sectors, engages communities and policy-makers in a productive dialogue, and provides timely and relevant information to impact real-world decision-making. In Minnesota, city and county agencies, community organizations, and university partners have carried out HIAs to inform decisions at the city and county levels. Through these efforts, organizations have engaged community members, city council members, and other key stakeholders, spurring ongoing interest in HIA, and have helped to seed the development of further activity throughout the state. As HIA interest and practice grows, the state health department has initiated the development of a program to coordinate activities, provide technical assistance, connect practitioners, and develop tools to effectively incorporate health into public decisions. This HIA program is intended to develop strong and lasting partnerships with key stakeholders and decision makers, and sustainability strategies needed to routinely consider health in decision-making. This session will discuss the activities taking place within various organizations throughout the state, the role of local and national funding partners to support the growth of HIA activity, and how this model can be expanded to other regions of the country.

Session Objectives: Describe how local and state agencies, community-based organizations, and grant-makers are partnering to support health impact assessment programs. Demonstrate how various HIAs conducted by local organizations have helped to introduce the health perspective into policy and planning decision-making in Minnesota. Compare the various activities taking place in state agencies and local organizations and explain how this has led to expanding interest in health impact assessment.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)