The following message was recently shared with local health agency directors from our branch director, Natalya Verscheure, which we wanted to highlight here for our local public health partners. Please note if you are interested in participating in the project team, there is a response deadline of November 27, 2024:
Dear Local Public Health Partners,
In the summer, we shared with you an idea to pilot an approach to core public health services, specific to tobacco and chronic disease work, more holistically. Specifically, with the additional Proposition EE funding to Local Public Health Agencies (LHA), there is an opportunity to address three behaviors (tobacco use, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity) that most directly lead to 4 chronic diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and asthma/pulmonary disease) while allocating the majority of the funding towards evidence-based programs that prevent and reduce tobacco use. Prop EE funding does not have a separate statutory framework, new processes, or criteria for distributing these new funds, putting them in with the education, prevention, and cessation programs described in CRS 25-3.5-805 which would require compliance with the terms of the existing statutory scheme.
The Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch (HPCDP) in the Prevention Services Division (PSD) at CDPHE contracted with Advancing Dynamic Solutions, LLC to work together to develop an LHA Chronic Disease framework. This framework will include evidence-based strategies across three behaviors and four chronic diseases that local health agencies can select to implement based on community health assessment data and needs, agency capacity, and community readiness. Many of you are familiar with and implementing the Tobacco Core LHA Framework. The newly developed LHA Chronic Disease (LHA CD) Framework will be modeled after Tobacco’s approach.
The contractor will guide the project team by facilitating meetings, reviewing existing national/other state frameworks, and conducting key informant interviews. The contractor will conduct the stakeholder and partner engagement and listening/feedback-seeking activities throughout this project. Finally, they will draft recommendations for chronic disease LHA capacity-building activities, evidence-based strategies, and best practices (known as the LHA CD Framework). Recommendations may also include LHA workforce skills and knowledge, and training and technical assistance needed to support this work.
We anticipate this project to begin in November 2024 and go through June 30, 2025.
We are reaching out to you to recruit LHA representatives to be part of the project team. We are looking for representation from different agency sizes and geographical locations to better reflect the diversity of public health work in Colorado. Your role on the project team will include participation in a project launch (tentatively planned for January 2025) and providing feedback on draft project materials. Additionally, we ask that your agency be interested and willing to participate in the pilot implementation of the strategy(ies) identified in the LHA CD Framework (tentatively planned for no sooner than Fiscal Year 2025-2026). We will prioritize participation on the project team to agency representatives who can help design and pilot this work.
Regardless of your participation in the project team, all local health agencies will be given several opportunities to provide feedback on the LHA CD Framework through a series of listening sessions (tentatively planned for Spring 2025).
Based on the results of the pilot implementation with the select number of agencies, we anticipate being able to offer implementation participation to a broader number of LHAs no sooner than the next funding cycle, FY27 and beyond.
If you are interested in participating in the project team, please complete the interest form no later than November 27, 2024. The interest form asks you to briefly describe any relevant experience with implementing chronic disease work or cross-cutting approaches that align with the 1-3-4-50 framework, and your current capacity and resources to support participation on the project team. We request that you identify no more than two individuals from your agency to be part of this work. We will confirm if your agency is selected to be part of the project team sometime in December – early January.
We will inform you of our progress by providing periodic updates via email. Anytime during the project duration, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Natalya Verscheure.
For more questions about participation on the project team, reach out to Natalya Verscheure, natalya.verscheure@state.co.us.
Please share with others in your agency as appropriate.
We look forward to working with you on this exciting opportunity to promote health and health equity across the state so that each Coloradan can thrive and live longer, healthier lives.
Regards,
Natalya