Larimer County Community Health Improvement Plan 2024-2029
Social Environment and Community
Mental Health
| INITIATIVE | STATUS | CONTACT | ACTIVITIES |
|---|---|---|---|
| NoCo Collective | Convening | Jo Buckley |
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| Housing Security Survey | Implementation | Jo Buckley |
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| Connecting Medicaid Processes | Planning | Jo Buckley |
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| Connecting Nonprofits with Local Businesses | Planning | Jo Buckley |
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| Supporting Eviction Prevention & Housing Stability | Assessing Readiness | Jo Buckley |
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| Suicide Fatality Review | Implementation | Jared Olson |
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| Potential Future Projects | Assessing Readiness | Jo Buckley | We are always exploring new projects and initiatives through the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) to address community needs. While these ideas are exciting, they are still in the planning stages and may not be implemented yet. If you’re interested in getting involved or learning more, we’d love to hear from you! Please reach out to CHIP Coordinator Jo Buckley at jbuckley@larimer.org. Some potential projects include:
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In 2008, Colorado passed the Public Health Act (C.R.S. 25-1-505) to ensure everyone in the state has access to core public health services at a consistent quality, no matter where they live. The Act requires the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) to create a statewide Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) every five years.
After the statewide plan is completed, local health departments must assess their community’s health and public health resources. These assessments help create a five-year local Public Health Improvement Plan, developed with input from community partners to address local health needs. To support this process, CDPHE developed the Colorado Health Assessment and Planning System (CHAPS), which provides a clear framework for meeting the requirements of the Public Health Act and national public health standards.
The Larimer County Department of Health and Environment (LCDHE) plays a key role in implementing this plan by bringing together partners, leaders, and residents to set community health goals and priorities. LCDHE also helps develop and carry out plans to achieve these goals. Everyone in the community, including residents, leaders, and organizations, has a role in creating a healthier future for Larimer County.
I’m excited to share the 2024-2029 Larimer County Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). This plan is the result of collaboration among community partners, stakeholders, and agencies who came together to share data, identify key public health needs, and prioritize actions to improve the health and well-being of Larimer County residents.
The CHIP outlines the work we’ll do with our partners to create a healthier county. It aims to build on existing partnerships while fostering new collaborations with those who share our vision for a better, healthier community. These challenges can’t be solved by any one group alone, and this plan is a living document designed to inspire and guide collective action in areas where we can make the biggest impact.
A core focus of this plan is health equity—ensuring that everyone in our community has the opportunity to live a healthy life. The CHIP serves as a road map for tackling barriers to health and creating meaningful change.
In this document, you’ll find details about how the plan was developed, key recommendations, and opportunities for action. You may even see ways you or your organization can contribute to this shared effort. Achieving meaningful change takes time, collaboration, and dedication. Together, we can work to improve health and well-being for everyone in Larimer County and create equitable outcomes for a stronger, more connected community.
Thank you for being part of this journey. Let’s make a difference together.
Sincerely,
Tom Gonzales, MPH
With the process described in more detail below, our community has identified the following priorities for the CHIP 2024 cycle.
Social Environment and Community
- Increase access to and use of community-building spaces with an emphasis on equity.
Community-building spaces are places where our community meets and interacts, such as parks, community centers, and coffee shops to name a few. They help our community build social connections and reduce isolation and loneliness.
Mental Health
- Increase social support and connection for older adults, youth, families, communities of color, LGBTQIA, Veterans, and persons living with disabilities with an emphasis on equity.
Social support can be a shoulder to lean on, an empathetic ear, a ride when you need it, or someone who lets you know about a resource you could use. Some individuals and communities have less access to social support and connection than others because of barriers they encounter that others don’t. A barrier could be a lack of transportation or facing discrimination in some spaces. Increasing social support can help individuals live healthier lives with less stress, especially when they may have other resources limitations like a fixed income.
The Larimer County Department of Health and Environment (LCDHE) used a modified version of the Colorado Health Assessment and Planning Process to guide their work. They focused on equity and involving the community every step of the way. Together, the community identified 9 key themes, which were narrowed down to 2 main priorities: mental health and the social environment/community. With input from partners, leaders, and community members, LCDHE developed two specific priority statements. These statements highlight the areas within mental health and social environment/community where the plan will focus on making progress.
To identify the priority statements, plan how to implement them, and set up ways to measure success, LCDHE focused on:
- Community Health Assessment: Pulling together qualitative and quantitative data to tell a story of health and wellbeing in Larimer County. (Appendix B)
- Capacity Assessment: LCDHE surveyed community partners to learn about their current work, priorities, and ability to collaborate on new initiatives.(Appendix C)
- Prioritizing Issues: They used data and feedback from the community, partners, and leaders to choose the two main priorities for the 2024 Community Health Improvement Plan. (Appendix D)
- Plan, Strategize, and Evaluate: Together with community partners, they created action plans to address the priorities and identified ways to measure progress and share successes.
After reviewing and evaluating previous Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) processes, LCDHE aimed to ensure the new priority statements were practical and achievable. To support this, the team developed three main strategies for the 2024-2029 CHIP. These strategies are part of an ongoing cycle of community improvement that regularly reassesses community needs and partner capacities. The three strategies are:
- Improve Access to Data and Evaluation: Make it easier to collect, share, and use data to track progress.
- Align Strategically: Coordinate efforts with partners and resources to maximize impact.
- Integrate Health Priorities into Policy Making: Ensure health priorities are included in local policies and decision-making processes.
Community partners emphasized the importance of including short-term, actionable, and measurable projects in the CHIP to evaluate success and make the best use of time and resources. For the 2024-2029 CHIP, the focus is on collaborative projects lasting 6 to 12 months, designed to increase impact and reach. This process involves ongoing cycles of bringing people together, identifying strategies, implementing plans, and ensuring sustainability throughout the 5-year period.
Advancing equity and addressing the root causes of health inequities are key priorities. Since early 2024, LCDHE has been working with community partners on these strategies and identifying initial projects, supporting and collaborating with organizations leading this work. Details on these strategies are provided in the following sections of this document.
LCDHE has collaborated with community partners to set goals for 2024. Future goals will be shaped by community needs and the capacity of organizations and partners. Below are the 2024 goals, along with potential goals for 2025-2029. LCDHE will work with partners to develop ways to measure progress for each goal. Updates will be available on this website.
Create resources for data access, evaluation expertise, and deduplication of assessments and surveys
Improve Access to Data and Evaluation
This strategy focuses on using existing resources to create projects that strengthen community connections, reduce isolation and loneliness, and improve fair access to social support. Understanding current conditions and identifying disparities are key to starting effective projects. However, repeating work or over-surveying historically marginalized groups can slow progress, waste resources, and strain communities. By working together across different fields and sharing data and reports, we can make a bigger impact and better inform current and future projects that support communities.
Why does this matter?
The Community Health Assessment (CHA) process and capacity assessment revealed that data challenges create barriers to securing funding, applying for grants, and developing programs. These challenges include time-intensive assessments, difficulties creating evaluations for grant reporting, and limited knowledge of other organizations' programs and priorities. Supporting a strategy to improve data sharing and reduce duplication will ease the workload for organizations and enhance the impact of existing programs. Sharing data that is currently kept within individual organizations or specific fields will also encourage more strategic and collaborative efforts across different areas.
2024 Projects:
- Create a shared, easy-to-access community resource with existing data and reports. This will help people understand current conditions, share knowledge across different areas, avoid repeating efforts, and lessen the need to repeatedly survey historically marginalized communities.
- A focused group, including Behavioral Health Services, Veterans Affairs (VA), law enforcement, the Larimer County Coroner’s Office, the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment, and the Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County, is reviewing suicide deaths among veterans. They are working together to make recommendations for better-supporting veterans and reducing future suicide deaths.
2025 - 2029 Potential Projects:
- Form a group of community data experts who can share their resources, ideas, and skills with organizations that may not have access to these tools on their own. These experts can provide support in areas like analyzing numbers, gathering stories and experiences, and conducting research that involves the community.
Align Strategically
Increase efficacy and efficiency of existing efforts by reducing duplication and identifying collaboration opportunities.
This strategy was created because the community capacity assessment showed that there are already several groups and initiatives focused on mental health and the social environment. These efforts involve many community members and leaders from different areas, such as government, nonprofits, public health, healthcare, education, and business. However, until now, there hasn't been a successful effort to bring together and organize the ongoing activities, communications, and plans from these different groups.
Why does this matter?
Leaders and community members agree that it's important to better understand and share the existing work happening around key priorities. This will help improve coordination and better use of resources. In late 2023 and early 2024, LCDHE staff worked with facilitators from NOCO Works, Communities of Excellence, The Community Foundation, and The United Way. These organizations are leading community-wide initiatives focused on improving the community and achieving strategic goals. Together, they have been creating a model to address the CHIP priority areas by coordinating large-scale efforts.
LCDHE’s CHIP staff are also partnering with the Caring and Sharing Coalition, which includes staff from nonprofit and community organizations that provide resources and services to under-resourced residents. LCDHE and these partners will work to find additional collaborators and organize meetings to develop strategies that better align community efforts. This alignment will raise awareness of available resources and increase the overall impact of the work being done.
2024 Projects:
- Create a "super-convener" group made up of 4-5 members from different community initiatives. These members will dedicate time to communicate and share information with other groups and the community. This group will help gather and share data, map out current projects, and report progress for each initiative, ensuring clear outcomes and efficiency during the 2024-2029 CHIP cycle.
- Additionally, support the revitalization of the Caring and Sharing Coalition to improve information sharing, raise awareness of related programs, and inspire the development of new projects that align with the 2024 CHIP priorities.
2025 - 2029 Potential Projects:
- Bring together small groups that focus on specific communities with shared interests and goals (for example, veterans with different service experiences or people living with different disabilities).
- Organize groups that address core challenges or opportunities across multiple communities (for example, reducing barriers to social gatherings, offering alternatives to isolating systems like car dependence, or promoting face-to-face interactions to reduce smartphone use).
- Support organizations that work on the priority areas by helping them find grants and providing professional development resources, especially for those with limited experience in applying for grants.
Integrate Health Priorities into Policy Making
Promote understanding of the policy role in community health and cooperatively consider health priorities as part of policy-making across multiple sectors.
This strategy focuses on working together across Larimer County to include health factors, especially mental health and social support, in decision-making at both the local and state levels. LCDHE understands that no single organization can solve widespread community issues on its own, which is why a collaborative approach is needed. By building community capacity to include health and equity considerations in policy discussions from the start, policies can be created to support long-term public health goals. This approach is known as "Health in All Policies" (HiAP).
Why does this matter?
Health in All Policies (HiAP) is a public health approach that uses evidence to drive changes in policies and programs. It works by improving relationships between different groups and aligning their goals in the policymaking process. LCDHE understands that many factors beyond public health and healthcare—like transportation, education, and employment—shape our health. Policies in these areas can be designed to support better health and health equity in our community.
Policy changes can have a larger impact on health by improving the social factors that influence health and making healthy choices more accessible. Rather than only addressing health problems like chronic disease in doctor's offices, policy can help prevent them from happening in the first place. To tackle health challenges and inequities, we need policies that change social systems and structures.
This work takes time because policy changes are less common than individual-focused actions like health education. The first goal of this strategy is to educate people and identify opportunities to influence policy. If successful, community partners in the CHIP will have a better understanding of HiAP, how it connects to their work, and who they can reach out to for help.
To evaluate the progress of the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) over five years, the CHIP team will look at several aspects of the plan. The main goal of CHIP is to improve health across the county, so we will track indicators related to overall health and well-being trends in the population.
We will also monitor our own efforts to reach the CHIP goals, including how we organize and support CHIP projects, and we will keep track of other initiatives in the county that align with CHIP goals. Additionally, the impact of each individual project will be assessed, and specific plans will be created to measure their success. These project-specific metrics will help us use resources efficiently and meet our goals.
Overall, the evaluation of CHIP progress will focus on four areas:
- Changes in the health and well-being of people in Larimer County.
- The process of organizing and supporting CHIP activities led by LCDHE.
- The activities and projects initiated by CHIP partners related to the priority areas.
- Specific outcomes for individual projects to assess their success.
At the county level, evaluating the impact of mental health involves looking at important factors like social support and community connections, as well as the health problems that are linked to having or lacking these resources. To measure how well the health department is supporting these efforts, we will track:
- How well we engage and keep stakeholders involved.
- The successful creation of partnerships between different groups.
- The development of projects with CHIP partners that lead to real, lasting results that benefit the community.
The Healthy Larimer Committee (HLC) is a community-led group focused on helping people in Larimer County become active participants in their community. HLC members work to build social connections and inclusivity, especially for those who face exclusion or marginalization. By working together on issues related to social belonging and access to health resources, HLC aims to create a fairer and more supportive community. Members are passionate about meeting the diverse needs of all people in Larimer County and making sure the voices of different communities are heard. The HLC's vision is to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to make a difference in their community.
For additional information or to become a committee member, visit the Healthy Larimer page.
- The Healthy Larimer Committee reviews projects and proposals from a variety of community and partner agencies to provide their expertise in health equity and lived experience.
- Community Partners, to request a review or to present to the Healthy Larimer Committee, please submit this form.
Email: Jo Buckley
