Clinton County Health Department

To help foster statewide implementation of prevention activities, the New York State Department of Health issued the Prevention Agenda 2013–17 to address disease prevention and reduce health disparities.

All 58 local health departments were required to submit a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) to the State outlining their strategies to advance the Prevention Agenda. To help energize the implementation of these CHIPs, the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth)  awarded grants to health departments with the most innovative and feasible projects to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities through the Advancing New York State’s Prevention Agenda: A Matching Funds Program to Implement Community Health Improvement Plans initiative. The Prevention Agenda offered NYHealth a timely opportunity to build upon its work in diabetes prevention by helping support initiatives that tackled the root causes of diabetes and other chronic conditions, such as obesity and smoking. NYHealth awarded the Clinton County Health Department (CCHD) a grant to participate in this initiative.

CCHD used funds to focus on the Prevention Agenda priority area of promoting a healthy and safe environment. It worked to increase access to and affordability of physical activity and nutrition opportunities in Clinton County. To achieve this goal, CCHD increased the number of public transportation riders to local grocery and food stores; developed and conducted community surveys to determine the need for additional routes and times of current routes to increase ridership; and promoted ridership in low-income rural areas. CCHD also worked with community partners to implement a Complete Streets initiative to improve the walkability of communities and enhance other physical activity opportunities. In addition to contributing funds from its own organization, CCHD secured matching grant funds for this project from Eastern Adirondack Healthcare Network, CVPH Medical Center, and CVPH Foundation.

See a full list of recipients from this initiative.