Exemplary Health Equity Practice Award
2017 Awardee | NAPA COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Napa County, the world-famous food and wine destination, is also one of the least affordable areas to buy a home in the United States, where average monthly rent for one bedroom exceeds $2,300. Over the last two years, Napa County Public Health (NCPH), the Live Healthy Napa County community collaborative, and other partners have been working to frame affordable housing as the most pressing health issue in the community. The resulting practice “Housing is Healthcare” is working to advance three priority areas: 1. Development of shared outcomes and metrics to measure success, 2. Development of a county-wide public relations/storytelling campaign, and 3. Coordinated advocacy and community engagement around housing affordable for all. NCPH has helped convene two community summits and a town hall to better understand the issues involved and build cross-sector alliances, is the backbone of a new public-private collaboration to develop a data-driven picture of the situation and subsequently communicate that data through stories, and is building internal capacity to address the social determinants of health and health equity.