BACKGROUND

For three decades, Healthy People has served as an evidence-based foundation for public health agencies and organizations to reach goals related to improving health status in the U.S. As Healthy People has evolved, its use has become more widespread. Public health activities from national to local levels are increasingly aligned with Healthy People goals and objectives.

Coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), Healthy People 2020 is being developed in 2 phases. Phase 1 includes the framework—vision, mission, and overarching goals. The framework provides a foundation for Healthy People 2020 objectives that will be developed. While general in nature, the framework offers specific, important areas of emphasis where action must be taken if the United States is to achieve better health by the year 2020. In partnership with the many national, federal, state and local stakeholders of the Healthy People initiative, HHS is now in Phase 2, developing specific objectives, targets and considering effective strategies for addressing Healthy People 2020. The full Healthy People 2020 initiative is anticipated to be released in 2010.

The Healthy People 2020 framework was developed by a federal workgroup with advice and consultation from a fully public member expert advisory committee and has included numerous opportunities for public comment. The result is a framework for improving the nation’s health which recognizes the multiple and integrated factors that impact health. These factors include social and physical environments as well as disease prevention, health promotion and health care. This change from Healthy People 2010 to Healthy People 2020 is intended to move-away from a "silo" approach to health and promote the notion that health is not the responsibility of the health sector alone; but also includes personal, social, economic, and environmental determinants. In addition, new and emerging issues and influences on health (health equity; health information technology; all hazards preparedness) are highlighted for their significance in promoting and ensuring the nation’s health.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this evaluation program is to have state, territory, and tribal governments propose and conduct innovative and participatory strategic planning activities and processes, with an emphasis on multi-sector collaboration, using the Healthy People 2020 framework and population health improvement concepts (i.e., Healthy People 2020 mission and overarching goals; social, physical, and environmental determinants of health; and health equity) to improve the health of their communities. ODPHP is interested in evaluating the utility of the Healthy People 2020 framework in guiding program and policy for eligible entities in addition to their state, regional and community partners and stakeholders. ODPHP is also interested in entities’ responses to the revised Healthy People initiative to a more integrated approach to address health determinants and diseases/conditions.

Awardees will receive funding to support activities that create a dynamic and flexible approach to operationalizing the Healthy People 2020 framework to address their specific population health contexts and needs. Since draft Healthy People 2020 objectives are expected during the implementation of projects, awardees should plan to incorporate them into their project design to address state disease prevention and health promotion priorities and needs.

Funding from this evaluation program is intended to enhance existing or planned state, territorial, and tribal activities to develop a Healthy People plan based on the national Healthy People 2020 framework and objectives.

0