Chicago Partnership for Public Health

The Chicago Partnership for Public Health is a public-private partnership of key public health stakeholders working to strengthen the public health infrastructure.  The Chicago Partnership first convened in 1998 as part of the National Turning Point Demonstration Project through the W.K. Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations and has continued to meet since then, conducting several strategic plans and implementing the priorities identified within the plans. 

Members of the Partnership represent entities that contribute to the health of the city residents, including: governmental agencies; provider, hospital, health center associations; schools and academia; research and policy organizations; faith and business communities; and community and social service organizations.  The Chicago Department of Public Health coordinates the Chicago Partnership and its Commissioner serves as the Chair.

Chicago Plan for Public Health System Improvement 2012-2016

The Chicago Partnership completed its most recent plan, the Chicago Plan for Public Health System Improvement 2012-2016, in February 2012.  This plan identified key priority action areas to improve Chicago’s public health infrastructure and utilized Mobilizing Action for Partnerships and Planning (MAPP) model, which was developed by the National Association for County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)  and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to guide the process.  The diverse Partnership members participated in all aspects of the planning effort, including reviewing community health data for the assessment, obtaining feedback from community members through focus groups and an online survey, analyzing the capacity of the public health systems, and identifying forces and trends that impact the system. 

The Chicago Plan serves as the Chicago Department of Public Health’s submission to the Illinois Department of Public Health as one of the requirements to be certified as a local public health department.  In addition, the Chicago Plan is one of the pre-requisites for National Public Health Accreditation. 

The Chicago Plan for Public Health System Improvement identifies three priority action areas through which to strengthen Chicago’s public health infrastructure.  One area focuses on forming new partnerships and strengthening collaborations to improve coordination of public health efforts.  This will be met in part as the Chicago Partnership serves as an Advisory Board for CDPH’s Healthy Chicago Agenda, which was released in August 2011 and focuses on 12 priority health areas to improve the health status of all Chicagoans. 

Another priority area of the Chicago Plan expands focus on social determinants of health through training and collaborations with non-traditional public health partners.  The third action area works to strengthen access to public health data for community assessment, planning, and advocacy by connecting and building on current efforts and collaborating among providers and researchers. 

For more information about the Chicago Plan, contact Sheri Cohen at 312-747-9562 or sheri.cohen@cityofchicago.org.  For more information about the Chicago Partnership, contact Joe Harrington at 312-747-8877 or joseph.harrington@cityofchicago.org.

Previous Chicago Plans:

Chicago Plan for Public Health System Improvement 2006-2011