Sharing Services to Meet Public Health Needs

• SJVPHC members work with the state health department as individual grantees and as a consortium. The SJVPHC director is included in strategic discussions with the state health department about funding opportunities for her input and to facilitate her grant writing.

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Routinely connect consortium staff to potential funding resources, as staff may not receive the same funding notices as health departments.  

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• State health department contracts obligate SJVPHC to serve all eleven counties, and the consortium does not pursue any funds that omit any of the counties (e.g., some local foundations do not serve all of them). This practice helps to ensure that the consortium serves all counties in an equitable fashion.

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The more independent the staff, the more efficiently work can proceed. It is important that all those involved in governing a consortium have a high level of trust in the senior staff person. 

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As consortium staff are hired, they will generate work that requires discussion, review, and approval by member health departments’ staff. Moreover, the goal of the consortium is to be of value to the health departments. Therefore, health departments should ensure that their staff dedicate time as needed to support the work of the consortium.

• SJVPHC established subcommittees populated by program staff who provide subject matter expertise and approve deliverables that do not need executive-level feedback.

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Encourage staff to contact other consortium members for input on individual county efforts and remind staff of the available expertise of consortium staff. Health department staff-level engagement with consortium members and consortium staff further solidifies a culture of a regional mindset, that in turn strengthens the value of the consortium.

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• SJVPHC is developing processes to generate and disseminate regional policy statements. A regional approach may be an effective way to raise the visibility of public health issues that may not otherwise receive attention due to political opposition. Furthermore, the widespread support demonstrated by a region-wide statement can be persuasive to policymakers.
• SJVPHC is developing regional statements on equity and racial justice and hopes these will provide a foundation for individual county efforts in addition to supporting regional work. 

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It is important that regional statements use language and concepts that are culturally competent and do not directly oppose decisionmakers’ stances or otherwise risk generating political backlash. 

• The COVID-19 response have left many in the San Joaquin Valley with lingering distrust and resentment of government “intrusion” into people’s private lives.   This sentiment is more pronounced in some areas than others. The to-be-hired communications specialist will be instrumental in crafting language that is sensitive to these sentiments and helps to re-establish communities’ trust in public health departments. 

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SJVPHC members’ staff worked with partners to complete an initial regional equity analysis that surfaced some health inequities and generated additional questions that the data scientist will address. The initial findings provided a solid foundation for planning the consortium’s first hires and starting to advance health equity at the regional level. 

When a SVJPHC member health department does not have a local health officer, as has been the case, their counties are not fully represented during leadership committee meetings. One option to addressing a leadership vacancy is to allow health departments to bring another staff member to meetings who is comfortable taking leadership in the department. 

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Despite the support of CSU-Fresno and membership dues, the expanded SJVPHC relies on grant funds and, therefore, grant-writing is an important part of the director’s job. The decision to hire the director came shortly before the pandemic started; as a result, more funding than usual has been available to support SJVPHC. Within a few years, however, additional support will need to be secured. SJVPHC fully anticipates that the additional capacity afforded by the expanded staff will greatly enhance its ability to attract additional grants, as deliverables are generated and the value of the consortium in advancing health equity becomes more tangible.

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