Save the Date for our Next Coalition Meeting:   

DATE:   Thursday, June 28 2012
TIME:   9:30am -  1:00pm
LOCATION:   Robert Wood Johnson Hamilton Center for Health and Wellness 

Watch for more information coming soon!                   

NJPN has a grant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  This grant is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’s) Community Transformation Grants to support public health efforts to reduce chronic diseases, promote healthier lifestyles, reduce health disparities, and control health care spending.  The guiding principles of this nationwide project are to:

• Maximize health impact through prevention,
• Improve health equity, and 
• Use and expand the evidence base for local policy, environmental, and infrastructure changes that improve health.

This capacity-building grant is for the State of New Jersey Minus Large Counties (those with populations exceeding 500,000) to form the Coalition for a Healthy NJ.  The goal of the Coalition for a Healthy NJ is to create healthier communities by building capacity and implement broad evidence- and practice-based policy, environmental, programmatic, and infrastructure changes within the target counties of Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Morris, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren. 

This project specifically addresses five “Strategic Directions:”

1.  Tobacco-free living

2.  Active living and healthy eating

3.  High impact evidence-based clinical and other preventive services

4.  Social and emotional wellness

5.  Healthy and safe physical environment

NJPN will develop the Coalition for a Healthy NJ, which will:

• Conduct the assessment phase of the Strategic Prevention Framework to identify specific populations experiencing health disparities and chronic diseases as evidenced by a comprehensive needs and resources assessment and policy scan;
• Increase capacity to implement broad evidence-based policy, environmental, programmatic, and infrastructure changes with key stakeholders; and
• Complete the planning phase to create a Community Implementation Plan for consideration by CDC to provide additional funding for the coalition in future years.

• Utilize a combination of state and local stakeholders working together to create health initiatives tailored to the specific needs at each level. 

The Coalition for a Healthy NJ will have a Leadership Team and Five Advisory Groups addressing each of the five strategic directions listed above.  NJPN will maximize its public and private partnerships and its extensive expertise in making population-level change and make New Jersey a healthier place to live.

If you are interested in joining the Coalition for a Healthy NJ, complete and return this form or email edward@njpn.org.