Products

The Healthy Communities Network® is a customizeable web-based information system designed provide access to high-quality data and decision support, helping to improve health indicator tracking, best practice sharing and community development in order to help improve the health and environmental sustainability of communities around the world.

The Healthy Communities Network® tracks over 100 health and quality of life indicators, offers guidance on over 1,000 community-level interventions, and includes features that help community members work with any stakeholders – such as government and non-government groups – to effect change.  The system also collects the locally unique knowledge of a region, blending it into the system  to provide a common, understandable and constantly updated view for all stakeholders

The Healthy Communities Network®   also helps measurably improve quality of life for people in communities around the world by becoming a catalyst for enduring change.  By improving the transparency and accountability of activities in any community, community benefit planning is enhanced, and local demand for access to – and understanding of – best and promising practices is met.

System Benefits Include: Makes community-level health and environmental data widely available A "Living" Community Needs Assessment Supports IRS 990 Schedule H requirements Helps measure and support community benefit Moves information from static reports to dynamic displays that are constantly updated and interactive Serves as a valuable tool for communities undergoing strategic planning Helps meet various regulatory requirements at the county, state, and federal levels

• Supports and promotes MAPP (systems approach, community partnerships, data requirements, engage community, etc.)
• Brings stakeholders together, promotes communication with Boards of Supervisors and State Legislators 

System Features Include:

1. A fully configured and hosted website tailored to any sized region or community
2. A local view of a “core set of content”

• Health and Quality of life Indicators (100+). color-coded gauges that provide a visual representation of the indicators of quality of life in a community, portraying the status of quality of life issues such as roadway congestion, infant mortality, chemical releases, childhood obesity, energy consumption, water sanitation, air quality, etc., per city, per county or any region.
• Promising Practices (1,000+). A database of practices that have already been used to effect positive change in communities, offering easy access to information about how a problem has been solved elsewhere, who to contact and how to implement specific practices (e.g. transit designs to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, and reduce childhood mortality).
• Local Resources. A local resource directory provides a practical link between health indicator information and a relevant services in their area. For local organizations, this feature becomes a virtual link to the community.
• News. Newsfeed headlines are made available through the website and are contextually-linked to indicators, best practices and other resources
• Event Calendar. A centralized community calendar informs users about local events and helps organizations publicize sponsored events.
• Feature Stories. Allows communities to highlight key local “content,” implemented according to local preferences, serving to alert users to any local concern including: upcoming local elections, important findings from an environmental study, or a key community event.
• Surveys. A survey tool provides subjective survey questions to elicit user-views on various aspects of their community.
• Literature and Education Materials

  This core set of content is readily extensible by local communities.

Copyright © 2010 Healthy Communities Institute