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Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant Funds Leveraged to Kick-off, Nurture, and Amplify Programs A Click-Through Story

Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) Block Grant funding allows recipients to plant the seeds for, cultivate, and nurture programs that wouldn’t be viable otherwise.

^{—PHHS Block Grant Coordinator, 2023}

Recipient Reflections

An illustrated gif where a speech bubble with a quote appears. It reads: “• “Without the PHHS block grant I'm not sure that we would have this innovation program. I think the funding sources are rather scarce as far as being able to be as flexible and to fund these types of emerging needs.” An illustrated speech bubble with a quote that reads: ““Without the PHHS block grant I'm not sure that we would have this innovation program. I think the funding sources are rather scarce as far as being able to be as flexible and to fund these types of emerging needs.”

^{—PHHS Block Grant Coordinator, 2023}

An illustrated gif where a speech bubble with a quote that appears and reads: • “[We] identified some of our biggest gap areas where [PHHS Block Grant] funding would be helpful because there wasn’t other funding in our department.” An illustrated speech bubble with a quote that reads:“[We] identified some of our biggest gap areas where [PHHS Block Grant] funding would be helpful because there wasn’t other funding in our department.”

^{—PHHS Block Grant Coordinator, 2023}

A gif of the state of Rhode Island (green) spinning into the frame, followed by the words "Rhode Island Health Equity Zones" emerging one at at a time.

Born out of the need to build and sustain community-led infrastructure that will achieve broad, systemic changes that address root causes of health inequities, the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) created Health Equity Zones (HEZ).

HEZs are contiguous geographically defined communities of at least 5,000 people with demonstrated social, economic, or environmental disparities or inequities in health outcomes.

This project was impactful in part because it addresses Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), because SDOH contribute to wide health disparities and inequities.¹

SDOH can be grouped into 5 domains:

An animated gif of circles bouncing into frame; each circle has one of the SDOH domains: Neighborhood and Built Environment, Health Care Access and Quality, Economic Stability, Education Access and Quality, and Social and Community Context. An illustration of 5 circles; each circle has one of the SDOH domains: Neighborhood and Built Environment, Health Care Access and Quality, Economic Stability, Education Access and Quality, and Social and Community Context.

SDOH: are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Rhode Island seeks to demonstrate that sustained, adequate investment in community empowerment and capacity is needed to address the root causes of health inequities and reduce disparities.

RIDOH used the PHHS Block Grant’s flexibility to address two funding challenges at the community level which include:

Providing resources devoted to community infrastructure needed to conduct genuine prevention activities

and

Administering funds to support sustainability of projects progress.

To maximize the opportunity to produce sustainable gains on health equity, RIDOH used their PHHS Block Grant funds to implement prevention activities.

To address roots causes and promote health equity, RIDOH has engaged residents as leaders, through both training and compensation, to participate fully in HEZ decision making.

An image of two women sitting and discussing something; the woman on the left is holding a pen and paper as she explains something.

They have used a collaborative, community led process to assess both assets and needs and implement data-driven action plans to address unique social, economic, or environmental disparities or inequities and poor health outcomes.

This work also demonstrates how innovation can happen by prioritizing regional and contextual differences during program implementation.

Rhode Island HEZ Locations: ²

A map of Rhode Island with municipalities outlined and orange stars on HEZ locations.

A gif of the state of North Dakota (blue) spinning into the frame, followed by the words "North Dakota Blue Zones" emerging one at at a time. An illustration of the state of North Dakota with the words "North Dakota Blue Zones" on top of it.

The North Dakota Department of Health (NDDH)’s Blue Zones project is an adaptation of the wider-reaching Blue Zones framework, an initiative that aims to improve health outcomes by making sustainable changes in the built environment.

Blue Zones describes their work as being “informed by the world’s longest-lived cultures” with the aim of “transforming community well-being” through “influencing the area[s] closest to home.”

Beginning with PHHS Block Grant-funded outreach to private partners, NDDH’s Blue Zones model engages community businesses and other stakeholders to fund and participate in initiatives that directly support improvements in community health outcomes.

This public-private partnership is the first of its kind for North Dakota.

Blue Zones community projects focus on 12 “pillars”: ³

Built Environment

Food Policy

Tobacco Policy

Creating New Social Networks

Getting People Involved in Volunteering

Helping People Define a Sense of Purpose

Employers

Schools

Restaurants

Grocery Stores

Faith Organizations

Home

This project emphasizes the importance of partnerships to start innovative work. By relying on partnerships, NDDH was able to make the case to bring private investment into the public health landscape and move the needle forward on health outcomes.

Additional collaborations allowed them to secure funding from private sector partners.

A group of four people all smiling; the two in the front are shaking hands in agreement.

An image of a mother and two daughters enjoying themselves biking outside on a smooth clear path lined with trees.

The Blues Zones work in North Dakota maximizes the impact of financial investments by implementing place-based, community-driven activities to address root causes and social determinants of health in their communities.

Thanks for reading!

An illustrated gif of a seed sprouting. An illustration of a seed sprouting.