Partnering with communities to improve health: The New York City turning point experience

Concurrent with the New York City Department of Health's reorganization eff orts, the Robert Wood Johnson and W.K. Kellogg Foundations launched Turning Point, a national initiative designed to strengthen the nation's public he alth system. The Turning Point initiative has emphasized broad-based partne rship building and planning as key prerequisites for improving public healt h practice. In response to the foundations' request for proposals, the depa rtment formed a New York City Public Health Partnership, which in turn appl ied for and was granted a Turning Feint planning grant. This funding allowe d New York City Turning Point to initiate a public health planning process, part of which involved convening forums in each of the five boroughs. With over 1,100 community participants, these forums provided both a starting p oint for establishing public health priorities and an interactive setting f or sharing health and demographic data. Included among the issues that emer ged as priorities were: access to care, environmental health, mental health , housing, asthma, education, and dietary issues. Building on the forum out comes, the New York City Public Health Partnership developed a public healt h system improvement plan. The goals delineated in this plan are: (1) to cr eate and support public health partnerships at the community, borough, and citywide levels; (2) to identify community health concerns and develop stra tegies responsive to these concerns; and (3) to develop policies to support and sustain a community health approach to improve health status. This art icle also discusses possible roles for local health departments in promotin g a community health approach to address public health concerns.