LOS ANGELES, June 16, 2020 — Released today by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, and the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) and its Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) community health initiative, a new comprehensive report outlines innovative multi-sector partnerships between public health, hospitals and health systems, community development and other sectors that leverage resources and align investments to improve people’s health. 

“Our health care system has mostly focused on treating diseases rather than preventing people from getting sick in the first place,” said Bill Sadler, director of operations with the Public Health Alliance of Southern California. “However, there’s a growing shift to focus on improving underlying community conditions. Partnerships between hospitals and health systems, public health and community development sectors and community-based organizations represent a major opportunity to significantly improve the health of neighborhoods and the people who live in them.” 

Titled Innovative Community Investment Strategies: The Current State of Practice and a Vision for Greater Implementation in Southern California, the report is available for review and download here.

The innovative community investment strategy models outlined in the report have made a mark in multiple regions across the U.S. but have been slow to spread to Southern California. Emerging partnerships between public health departments and hospitals seek to change that. Through a review of more than 100 resources and case studies and 30 key informant interviews, the new report identifies best practices where these partnerships and investment strategies are working to address the root causes of health inequities and improve community health, and recommendations for implementing similar partnerships in Southern California.  

Key recommendations include:

• Establishing public health departments as core partners in all innovative community investment strategies.
• Hospital leadership championing innovative community investment strategies in Southern California.
• Establishing strategic partnerships among the community development, public health, and health care sectors in Southern California to invest in community health needs.
• Exploring alternatives outside of traditional funding mechanisms for greater alignment with resources in other sectors.
• Extending evaluation measures beyond just return on investment and incorporating health and equity outcomes.
• Enacting state policies which could enable, facilitate and potentially fund local innovative financing strategies.

The Alliance and CLC are scheduled to host a Capstone Roundtable seminar event on April 28 as part of HASC’s 2021 Annual Meeting to promote the report and hear from several community investment innovators. More details on the event will be announced at a later date.

Support for this report was provided by The California Endowment and Blue Shield of California Foundation.

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About the Public Health Alliance of Southern California

The Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance) is a coalition of the executive leadership of 8 local health departments in Southern California. Collectively, the Alliance’s members have statutory responsibility for the health of nearly 50 percent of California’s population. The Alliance works with its members to build healthy, equitable communities through upstream multi-sector policy, systems and environmental change, and mobilizes the transformative power of local public health for enduring health equity. Our vision is “vibrant and activated communities achieving health, justice, and opportunities for all.” The Alliance is fiscally administered by the Public Health Institute.

About Communities Lifting Communities

Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) is a regional community health improvement initiative led by the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) to reduce health disparities and improve community health in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties. 

For more information, contact Bill Sadler, Director of Operations, Public Health Alliance of Southern California, bsadler@phi.org, (619) 642-2488.