Strategic Alliance for Health Communities

Since 2008, CDC’s 14 Strategic Alliance for Health (SAH) communities have been improving community health through sustainable, innovative, and evidence-based community health promotion and chronic disease prevention interventions that lead to policy, systems, and environmental changes. To do this, SAH communities focus on building local capacity to

• Institute policy, systems, and environmental changes related to promoting physical activity and nutrition and reducing tobacco use and exposure.
• Improve and increase access to quality health care.
• Help eliminate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities.
• Reduce complications from and incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Each SAH community will focus its efforts on a minimum of two sectors for a 5-year period. Schools are a required sector, and the other(s) will be selected from the community, work site, or health care sectors. Communities will work collaboratively with their key partners (including representatives from education agencies, community and faith-based organizations, businesses, and the health care sector) to develop policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that 1) promote and sustain community-based health promotion and chronic disease prevention programs and 2) help achieve the Healthy People 2010 objectives. SAH communities developed Implementation Guides to mentor other communities in chronic disease prevention. These "how to" guides provide evidence- and practice-based strategies to reduce the burden of chronic diseases. Communities can use these Implementation Guides as a resource to assist in replicating specific policies, systems, or environmental change strategies across multiple sectors and chronic disease risk factors. Each Implementation Guide offers key lessons learned and step-by-step guidance for planning, evaluating, and sustaining policy, systems, and environmental change strategies.

To download an SAH Implementation Guide, click on the funded community.

SAH COMMUNITIES:

State-Coordinated Small Cities/Rural Communities

Alabama

• Dallas County
  Increasing Access to Locally Grown Fresh Fruits and Vegetables by Revitalizing a Community Farmers Market
  
• Perry County
  Establishing Work Site Wellness Committees
• Sumter County
  Creating Safe and Accessible Walking Paths

New York

• Albany County
  Movers and Shakers: Physical Activity "Bursts" in the Classroom
  
• Broome County
  Patriot Breakfast Program
• Orange County
  A Guide to Implementing Farm to School in Your District
• Schenectady County
  Know, Grow, and Eat Your Vegetables: Policy, System, and Environmental Changes to Increase Access to Healthier Foods among the Developmentally Disabled

Large Cities/Urban Communities

• Boston, Massachusetts
  Reducing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Through Policy and Social Norm Change
• DeKalb County—Atlanta, Georgia
  Gardens in the Parks: Growing a Garden Policy
• Hamilton County—Cincinnati, Ohio
  Increasing Access to Healthy Foods in Schools: The Adoption and Implementation of Competitive Foods Guidelines
• Hillsborough County—Tampa, Florida
  Creating a Community that Supports Breastfeeding
• New York City, New York
  Ways to Create a Healthy School Environment: A Simple Award Can Impact School Nutrition, Physical Education, and Wellness Policies

Tribes/Tribal Entities

• Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma
  Tobacco-Free Policy for City Parks
  
• Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan
  Facilitating Adoption of a Smoke-Free Housing Policy for a Tribal Housing Authority