Welcome to the Community Health Initiatives Site

Kaiser Permanente community health initiatives (CHI) seek to transform the health of our communities by linking an evidence-based and prevention-oriented approach to medicine with community activism and proven public health interventions. Community health initiatives are part of a cross-regional strategy for achieving a significant and measurable impact on the health of our communities by emphasizing:

A place-based focus, with a target geography no larger than a county and no smaller than a few blocks.

A socio-ecological approach that emphasizes change at multiple levels - including individual behavior, the family environment, community institutions such as schools and workplaces, the physical and social environment, and public policy.

Multi-sectoral collaboration that engages sectors not traditionally involved in community health improvement efforts reflecting a broad definition of health and the breadth of interventions required to make a difference in community-level health outcomes.

A focus on racial and ethnic health disparities both as an appropriate goal in and of itself as well as the principal means by which overall community-level health outcomes can be improved.

An approach to community engagement and community ownership that emphasizes doing this work with rather than for our communities, and that engages community residents and community-based organizations in each major phase of this work.

Long-term partnerships and a commitment to community change efforts for a 7-10 year time frame in recognition of the complexity of the challenges we seek to tackle.

A proactive effort to design sustainability and capacity building into our initiatives by, for instance, forging partnerships with other funders and public sector agencies, providing technical assistance to our community partners, and integrating programs into regularly planned activities of partner organizations.

Leveraging the assets and strengths of our communities and our own organization including, most importantly, our employees, our physicians, and the unique contributions we can make as a prevention-oriented delivery system.

An evidence-informed public health approach that draws on KP's expertise in evidence-based medicine and our experience translating research into practice.

A commitment to learning and evaluation that drives improvement as well as accountability, and that applies principles of community-based participatory research which emphasize the role of community residents as experts and investigators, not merely as research subjects.

A central underpinning of the CHI approach to community health improvement is the critical role of partnerships. A variety of strong and durable partnerships are critical to bringing about the kind of large-scale and sustainable change we aspire to achieve. Our framework for community health initiatives calls for proactively and purposefully engaging like-minded public health agencies, safety net providers, community-based organizations, advocacy groups, and other community partners in the pursuit of shared goals.

The thematic focus of our work is Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL), and the myriad health issues that can be a byproduct of poor nutrition and inactivity. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has declared obesity to be an epidemic and the nation's most pressing public health issue. Our focus on Healthy Eating/Active Living is an important part of KP's strategy to address the epidemic, and one that is an extension of our proud heritage of prevention, health education, and population-based health.