Partnership for the Public's Health -
HEAC Program Office
Organization Overview
The Partnership for the Public's Health (PPH) serves as the Program Office for The California Endowment's Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC) program. In this capacity, PPH will carry out four major functions:
- Coordinate and conduct technical support activities for HEAC grantees
- Manage HEAC grantee contracts and deliverables
- Support local and state public health practice and policy development
- Coordinate communications with HEAC community grantees
An overarching function of this office will be to weave together all the program components to build a cohesive movement for local and statewide change in California.
Technical Support for HEAC Grantees
The primary role of the PPH office is to support local collaborative grantees in achieving the goals of the HEAC program. PPH will coordinate all technical support providers and provide some direct technical support activities. The areas of direct technical support provided by the PPH office include:
- Collaborative development
- Strategic planning
- Peer learning
- Public health practice and policy development for local health departments
PPH will also coordinate the core technical support team that will provide training and consultation to grantees in each of the program's five goal areas: schools, after school, health care, neighborhoods and marketing and advertising. This team includes California Project LEAN (school sector), the California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit, after school sector), Policy Link (neighborhood sector) and Kaiser Permanente (health care sector). Together, this group will identify the skills and expertise of grantees, and develop a coordinated strategy to support grantees as they develop their project goals and make progress throughout the program. PPH will coordinate additional support provided by the California Center for Civic Participation and Youth Development, the Berkeley Media Studies Group, and Contra Costa Health Services for all HEAC grantees.
Additional technical support activities that will be conducted by the PPH office include:
- Plan and conduct the initial two-day orientation meeting for all HEAC grantees.
- Convene a Grantee Steering Committee to inform all aspects of the program and to build peer networks.
- Convene and support peer networks of HEAC grantees.
- Coordinate and manage an annual conference for all program participants.
- Wherever possible, link HEAC grantees with other entities engaged in statewide and systems change strategies.
- Coordinate data collection strategies and tools required for evaluation with those required for technical support.
Grants Management for HEAC Grantees
Although contracts are made directly between The California Endowment and HEAC grantees, PPH is the primary contact for all contract related questions and will support grantees to develop their budgets and contract deliverables. All contract deliverables will be sent to the PPH Program Office for review and approval before grant payments are released by TCE.
PPH activities to support this function include:
- Assist grantees in completing narrative and financial progress reports.
- Review and approve grantee progress reports (financial and narrative) to ensure that progress is being made, that contractual obligations are met, and to trigger annual payments.
- Provide feedback to grantees on their deliverables.
- Ensure that all grantees fulfill the grant requirements.
Local and State Public Health Practice and Policy
An important role of PPH with local public health departments is to consistently focus on the larger vision of reducing health disparities in California and apply the lessons learned from addressing food and physical activity environments to this broader vision. To support this role, PPH will identify and support public health policy strategies that build state and local public health systems prepared to prevent chronic disease, create healthy communities and eliminate health disparities.
Some of the areas of activity to achieve this include:
- Document and promote models and strategies of local public health departments working in multi-sectoral collaborations to address the social and environmental determinants of community health, including the capacity to improve nutrition and physical activity environments. These will be shared with HEAC grantees and other local public health departments.
- Support the development of regional approaches to public health that pool resources, exchange best practices and develop regional strategies to prevent chronic disease, improve community health and reduce health disparities.
- Support statewide public health improvement processes that are consistent with the goal of building state and local public health systems that are better prepared to prevent chronic disease, improve community health and reduce health disparities.
Communications for the HEAC Program
PPH will create an overall infrastructure to promote communications within the HEAC program. Activities to support this goal include:
- Establish and maintain a HEAC Web Site with resources for grantees and the public.
- Publish a quarterly newsletter to support grantees' diabetes-prevention and peer-networking efforts.
- Disseminate a semi-monthly electronic newsletter, Communications Digest, to keep grantees informed of activities within the program.
- Publish two "Lessons Learned" reports, one at the midpoint of the program and one at its conclusion.
- Publish at least four white papers a year analyzing different aspects of diabetes prevention approaches and public-health infrastructure.
Contact Information
Partnership for the Public's Health
180 Grand Ave., Suite 750
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 451-8600
Fax: (510) 451-8606
Website: www.PartnershipPH.org
