HEAC Program Office
Partnership for the Public's Health
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 carries 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 is 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 coordinates 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 also coordinates the core technical support team that provides training and consultation to grantees in each of the program's two goal areas, schools/after school and neighborhood/after school. This core team includes California Project LEAN, the California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit), Policy Link and Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG). Together, this group identifies the skills and expertise of grantees, and develops a coordinated strategy to support grantees as they pursue their project goals. PPH coordinates additional support provided by the California Center for Civic Participation , Children Now, Public Health Law & Policy, Prevention Institute/Strategic Alliance and Samuel & Associates, for all HEAC grantees.
Additional technical support activities conducted by the PPH office include:
- Convene a bi-annual Grantee Meetings to inform all aspects of the program and to build peer networks.
- Convene and support peer networks of HEAC grantees.
- 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 supports grantees to develop their budgets and contract deliverables. All contract deliverables are 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.
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 identifies and supports 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 are being 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 has created 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.
- Disseminate a monthly electronic newsletter, the Communications Digest, to keep grantees informed of activities within the program. Kevin, we are. I have not had a chance to do it. I will send one out for June 09.
- Publish "Lessons Learned" reports at midpoints of the program and at its conclusion.
- Publish white papers analyzing different aspects of diabetes prevention approaches and public-health infrastructure.
Resources and Publications
Promoting Healthier After School Environments: Opportunities and Challenges
One in a series of reports about creating healthy environments for children.
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