Health Planning Council of Northeast Florida along with 25 additional regional partners is close to unveiling one of the most exciting regional indicator initiatives in years.  Back in May of 2010, the Health Planning Council convened over 40 regional stakeholders from Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, St. Johns, Putnam and Volusia counties to review the Healthy Communities Inc., community indicator platform developed by Dr. Deryk Van Brunt from University of California- Berkeley. Dr. Van Brunt, spoke to a packed Board Room at Baptist Medical Center- South and described how this living sustainability indicator, community assessment, and community change platform is used by Mayors, Chambers of Commerce, United Way, hospitals, health departments, funding institutions, local municipalities and region planning organizations across the country.  To date, this initiative is catching the attention of other communities.  A state hospital association in Oregon requested the Health Planning Council of speak to their community stakeholders about Northeast Florida Matters and two large Florida communities have also requested presentations and technical assistance from us. 

Since that first meeting back in May 2010, the Health Planning Council has provided stewardship and strategic direction for the development of a community driven health and sustainability seven county dashboard appropriately entitled Northeast Florida Counts.  From Day 1, the Health Planning Council insisted on an inclusive and community driven process.  The Governance of Northeast Florida Counts consists of a Steering Committee and an Advisory Committee. The Steering Committee is made up of approximately 25 regional investors along with invited at-large members charged with the task of identifying 175+ regional sustainability indicators, evidence-based best practices, the look and feel of the dashboard and the administration of the Northeast Florida Counts Student Scholarship Fund. The Advisory Committee consists of representatives from around the community who have first hand experience and knowledge of each our counties in Northeast Florida.  Advisory Committee members are charged with developing editorial policies around featured content, calendar of events, news articles, promising practices and strive to ensure balanced content.

There are a lot of different data systems coming out that are great tools for communities to measure progress.  But communities want to "see" and be "engaged" to determine how they are doing on measures such as education, economy, environment, health, social environment, health care, public safety, and transportation.  Northeast Florida Counts will not only provide the visual gauges of community progress, but it will also provide features for community strategic planning, highly reputable Claritas demographic data, evidence based practices, local report cards, local requests for data, etc.  What's more exciting is that Northeast Florida Counts will allow our regional hospital systems to address their community needs assessments required by the IRS to maintain their non-profit status; County Health Departments will be able to use Northeast Florida Counts to conduct their MAPP community needs assessments required for accreditation; Finally, ALL human service organizations will be able to use Northeast Florida Counts to determine whether their service delivery efforts are helping the region meet the new CDC Health People 2020 and the Robert Wood Johnson's County Health Rankings.  It's a win-win for the entire region. 

A soft launch is expected to occur in early March with our Steering Committee.  The Health Planning Council of Northeast Florida along with all of their regional investors is gearing up for a very special public launch in the next couple of months.  Please stay tuned.  You do not want to miss this exciting event.