Community Health
The Office of Community Health is dedicated to achieving more equitable outcomes for all through community-centered initiatives and research. Our experience in health equity and our unique roles as non-clinical staff gives us the time and the skills to build lasting, two-way relationships between community, clinicians, and research partners. When we work in partnership with communities, we create better outcomes.
We believe that communities are experts in their own strengths, needs, and social conditions. Whether we are organizing a community advisory board, forming a coalition of partners, or leading a community needs assessment, we approach our work through a lens of cultural humility and shared ownership with our community partners.
Why Community Health Matters
Health is more than clinical care. Seventy-five percent of what keeps people healthy happens outside of the clinic – in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities.
In the spirit of our mission to strengthen personal and community health, we work alongside communities to create a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and live well.
How We Strengthen Community Health
To improve the health of communities, we:
- Build and sustain long-term, two-way relationships with communities.
- Teach practicing family physicians and physicians in training how to be responsive to community needs.
- Support initiatives and research that center community voices and advance health equity.
We bring community, clinicians, and research partners together to advance health equity in Wisconsin.
Community Health Projects
LGBTQIA2S+ Health Equity
Through our data and environmental assessments, we’ve built close relationships and are expanding our connections statewide as we work together to develop an LGBTQIA2S+ Health Equity Coalition.
Nutrition Security
We work with a variety of partners from public health to health insurers in order to ensure our research and projects are useful on a broader level.
Rural Health
We’ve collaborated with local health departments in rural counties and facilitated relationships between health department staff and clinical staff. We’ve also learned from local community health assessment and improvement plans.
Community Health Workers
The Dane County CHW Collective builds partnerships by bringing together community health workers from a variety of nonprofit and government organizations in our community.