The Community Health Improvement Partnership, or “CHIP” for short, was established in 2012 on the idea that solutions to complex health issues can be found when partners from across the community work as one. Our partners come from the public, private, and nonprofit sections and include public health agencies, healthcare organizations, housing developers and providers, schools, human services, and more. We prioritize community health issues together for greater impact. This is called "collective impact". 

Envisioning a healthier Hennepin County

Priorities for 2019–2023

Community mental well-being

• Become trauma informed agencies and organizations.
• Support spiritual/faith/cultural leaders to respond to trauma in their communities.

Housing stability

• Partner with rental communities to support social connectedness. 

To identify community driven solutions that address these priorities, CHIP intentionally lifts up community voices and organizations. CHIP also awards funds to communities when available and provided over $275,000 to 85 community-led projects across the county between 2020 and 2022. 

CHIP action teams meet monthly and include people from healthcare, housing, community, faith, and school-based organizations as well as school districts and other groups working to support those impacted by health and racial disparities in cultural, spiritual, faith-based and/or geographic communities within Hennepin County. We’d love to have you join us!

For more information, please contact Karen Nikolai at karen.nikolai@hennepin.us.

CHIP’s commitment to health and racial equity

Health and racial equity are at the core of our work. Because of this, we will focus on the ways structural and institutional racism and bias impact outcomes for people of color. We will use a racial equity lens to focus our intent, which will bring us all to a shared understanding, language, and definitions on race and bias as we catalyze and carry out our work.

CHIP principles

CHIP’s Executive Committee engaged in small and large group conversations over two months in 2018 to formulate principles that the partnership now uses to guide all planning and execution of its work. These principles are below.

Guiding principles

1. We understand that racism is at the core of racial and economic disparities, and the systems that perpetuate these inequities must be dismantled.
2. We recognize the harm our systems have caused, and we will shift our organizations’ business decisions to prevent harm.
3. We will listen as communities define their own goals, then partner with them to achieve shared success.
4. We will act collectively upstream, harnessing the power and resources of this partnership to create equitable processes, policies, and collaborations. 

CHIP roles

Convene

Bring different sectors, organizations, and communities together toward action.

Catalyze and collaborate

Support and learn from people in cultural, spiritual, faith-based and/or geographic communities, especially Black, Indigenous, people of color, to align interests and resources, and act toward mutual goals to move the dial on community mental well-being and housing stability.

Advocate

Share decision-making and action with communities who don’t traditionally have a voice and advocate for change together with them.

Adopt policies

Lead policy change within partner organizations, and work with political bodies to adopt policies and practices that move the dial on disparities related to CHIP’s priorities.

Use data, including health/racial equity data

This map shows funding provided by CHIP between summer 2020 and spring 2022 for community-driven projects identified and carried out by county residents, as well as nonprofit and for-profit organizations serving residents. Projects addressed health and racial disparities in community mental wellbeing and housing stability and included:

CHIP priority 1: Community mental well-being

• Address the stress, trauma, or violence happening in your apartment building, neighborhood, school, or community.
• Help people deal with fear or shame of mental health stigma that stops them from getting help.
• Provide support to spiritual, faith, or cultural leaders in their efforts to support their community.

CHIP Priority 2: Housing stability

• Help people connect socially and support each other in your apartment building or housing complex. 
• Provide ideas and solutions that support communities trying to obtain or stay in housing.

CHIP 1.0 final report (PDF)

CHIP Plan 2019 - 2023 (PDF)

CHIP Plan 2012–2015 (PDF)

• The 2012-2015 Community Health Improvement Plan for Hennepin County Residents – a summary of the results of the 2012 planning process and the targeted strategic health goals

Appendix 1, CHIP Plan 2012-2025: Participants (PDF)

• CHIP leadership group, forum participants, and survey participants

Appendix 2, CHIP Plan 2012-2025: The MAPP process details (PDF)

• Overview of the MAPP process and how it was used in this planning process. Includes tables of summary information from the CHIP forum discussions and survey, characteristics of a healthy community and themes, and SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and Forces of Change discussions.

Appendix 3A, CHIP Plan 2012-2025: Data details (PDF)

• 3.A.1. Hennepin Public Health Data website information
• 3.A.2. 2012 CHIP survey questions and summary results
• 3.A.3. Data PowerPoints from the CHIP forums 1 & 3
• 3.A.4. Key findings from the 2010 SHAPE adult survey
• 3.A.5. Key findings from the 2010 SHAPE child survey
• 3.A.6. List of Community Health Assessment Indicator fact sheets from the Hennepin Public Health Data website

Appendix 3B, CHIP Plan 2012-2015: Indicator fact sheets (PDF)

• Indicator fact sheets with data available during the 2012 CHIP process
• CHIP planning data: provides links to the various data sources accessed for the community health assessment and data work for this process.

CHIP Community Health Assessment 2017 (PDF)

Public health data 

• This site provides links to information the results of the community health assessment.