FOCUS AREAS

Public Health

The health of our communities depends on the quality of our environment and our access to food, housing, healthcare, and other systems. Our well-being is tied not only to the systems that surround us, but also by the way the people within the systems work together.

Why Illinois

Many of Illinois’s public health challenges mirror the nation’s, as do their underlying causes—inequitable policies, power imbalances, and an historic lack of access to resources and opportunities.

Our Work

IPHI is a strategic partner and advisor, building coalitions of community leaders, state and local governments, healthcare systems, and others working to create conditions where all people have a fair opportunity to thrive.

Health Assessment and Planning

IPHI was instrumental in the creation, passage, and implementation of a law that requires the Illinois Department of Public Health to conduct regular State Health Assessments (SHA) in order to create State Health Improvement Plans (SHIP).

Now IPHI is supporting implementation of Healthy Illinois 2028, which prioritizes support for chronic and emerging disease prevention, maternal and infant health, mental health and substance use disorder, and racism as a public health crisis. IPHI also convenes the Alliance for Health Equity, which completes a Chicago and Suburban Cook County-wide community health needs assessment—one of the region’s largest.

Health Information Sharing and Innovation

IPHI and our partners believe that information about community health needs belongs to all of us. Through our Systems Change Collaborative work, we helped secure an $8 million investment to establish the Chicago Regionwide Community Information Exchange. Today this organization helps caseworkers and providers across Chicago and Cook County safely share information to better coordinate care for people facing complex health challenges.

For the past decade, the Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) initiative has been a key resource for equitable, multi-sector data sharing. One example of a DASH-funded program is the WNC Health Network, focused on collecting and expanding access to high-quality community health data to better align service offerings from hospital, healthcare, and other community partners.

Strengthening Social Connections

As the physical toll of social isolation has become increasingly clear, so too has our understanding of the ways strong social connections and networks can boost a person’s health and even extend their life.

IPHI’s collaborations with public health and aging partners are creating frameworks and strategies to advance and improve social connection in communities.