Situation: Polk County Health Department is charged with delivering public health services in Iowa’s most populous county and implementing health improvement programs as defined in an ambitious ten-year plan. Elected officials and Department management were charged in 2008 to create a new road map – Healthy Polk 2020 – to identify future health priorities while still implementing the Healthy Polk 2010 plan.

PR Action: Hanser & Associates was selected through a competitive process in 2008 to support county-wide public input and consensus-building. We gathered detailed input directly from 1,600 community members via phone and online surveys.

Results: Through the surveys and a subsequent public forum, Department leaders identified – and gained community support for – ten priorities that will be focused on through the next ten years to work towards a community in which all people are healthy; the priorities were announced at a public rally in downtown Des Moines, Iowa on May 6, 2009. The leadership group is subsequently recruiting volunteers and donors to work toward implementing each of the ten priorities.

Posted: June 2, 2009 at 12:31 pm by sarag