COVID-19 has underscored the importance of using data and partnering with communities to improve community health outcomes. Reaching all Virginians requires public health actions designed to achieve health equity by understanding and addressing the root causes of inequities and structural barriers. As VDH engages in public health transformation work, it should be rooted in this vision and focus on developing the capabilities for all VDH programs to approach public health through this lens. Improving community health requires the Central Office and local health districts to have staff with specialized skills and training.
The Center for Community Health Improvement is charged with overseeing community health improvement efforts at VDH, including the State Health Assessment and State Health Improvement Plan/Virginia Plan for Well-Being. Our vision is to build on VDH’s current efforts and create a team of teams to support collaborative community health improvement systems and processes to drive measurable health improvement in Virginia.