CHNA20

CHNA 20 region

A Community Health Network Area or CHNA is a coalition of various people including representatives from local communities, non-profits, and private sectors. As a coalition, CHNA members work together in order to develop healthier communities through community-based prevention planning and health promotion with the guidance of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Office of Healthy Communities. Currently there are 27 CHNAs in Massachusetts that involve 351 towns and cities. CHNAs are identified between 1 and 27, with each CHNA encompassing towns and cities of within a specific geographic area.

Mission

The mission of each CHNA is to:

• be committed to improving the health of their communities
• identify and track area health indicators and work to eliminate identified disparities
• provide mini-grants for projects related to fostering healthier communities
• include and encourage community residents, consumers, coalitions, communities of faith, local and state governments, businesses and community-based health, education, and human service providers to work together in developing a healthier community
• strive to reflect age, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and linguistic diversity of their communities
• work in partnership with the MA Department of Public Health

Membership

There are no requirements to become a member of a CHNA. Membership is open to any person who is interested in working on improving the health and well being of residents in their community. Members are able to acquire knowledge about a wide spectrum of health-related issues; participate in designing and implementing health improvement projects and work with others to enrich communities; advocate for health issues that are important to their communities; network and share ideas with people with interest in building healthier communities

CHNA 20

CHNA 20 consists of towns primarily within Norfolk County, Massachusetts. Hull, Hingham, Scituate and Norwell are in Plymouth County. The neighboring towns that encompass CHNA 20 are:

• Braintree
• Canton
• Cohasset
• Hingham
• Hull
• Milton
• Norwell
• Norwood
• Quincy
• Randolph
• Scituate
• Sharon
• Weymouth

In cooperation with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and residents, hospitals, service agencies, schools, businesses, boards of health, and other concerned citizens, the 13 towns together have formed the Blue Hills Community Health Alliance in order to identify health needs of their local communities and determine an effective way to address these needs and improve the communities' overall health.

A healthy community

The purpose of a CHNA is to develop a comprehensive approach to building a healthier community. CHNA 20 has defined that a healthy community should support the welfare and health of its members in the following ways:

• Embrace diversity through respect and concern
• Knowing itself
• Developing leadership in its members
• Connect people and their resources
• Create a sense of community for everyone
• Planning in order to shape the community's future
• Keep an ongoing dialogue
• Plan for a clean and safe environment
• Implement the designs and usage of communal spaces

RCHC

The Regional Center for Healthy Communities supports the Community Health Care Coalition of Metrowest (formerly CHNA 7), CHNA 15, CHNA 17, CHNA 18, and CHNA 20 (Blue Hills Community Health Alliance). The RCHC's goal is to work to build and maintain a CHNA's leadership capacities. The RCHC provides a variety of skill building opportunities for CHNA leadership and members which include:

• Leadership development: visioning, decision making models, communication flow
• Partnership development: recruitment, retention, inclusive processes, media relations
• Youth development: fostering youth membership, running youth-friendly meetings, sharing asset-based models
• Peer learning and networking opportunities: the RCHC convenes CHNA leadership from across the region quarterly in order to facilitate networking and collaboration among them

References