Greater Mercer Public Health Partnership
United Way of Greater Mercer County Awarded Community Health Needs Assessment Grant
United Way of Greater Mercer County is pleased to announce a three-year, $249,710 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its New Jersey Health Initiatives program. Grant funds will be used to conduct a broad-based community health needs assessment and implement a Health Improvement Plan for Mercer County, focusing on the needs of vulnerable populations.
The Greater Mercer Public Health Partnership (GMPHP) has been created to implement the grant as a collaboration of 14 organizations: United Way of Greater Mercer County (UWGMC), the Mercer County health department as well as eight local health departments, Capital Health Medical Center-Hopewell, St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, and Princeton HealthCare System.
As a partnership of organizations representing the public health sector, health care providers and community organizations, GMPHP’s mission is to measurably improve the health of Mercer County residents. GMPHP provides a countywide infrastructure to ensure that Mercer County’s community organizations, health providers, businesses and volunteers use their collective resources to efficiently implement a coordinated plan based upon local needs. Collectively, GMPHP will support open communication and trust, collaborate with successful grantees on common objectives, coordinate strategies and opportunities for health improvement, foster accountability, and direct outreach to community organizations and residents.
The proposed planning area is Mercer County. The Community Health Needs Assessment will review countywide data but focus on four geographic zones: (1) Greater Trenton (Ewing, Lawrence, Hamilton); (2) Princeton Township, Princeton Borough; (3) Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township, Pennington, Titusville; and (4) East Windsor, Hightstown, West Windsor, Robbinsville. According to the 2010 County Health Rankings, Mercer County ranked 12th overall among New Jersey’s 21 counties. GMPHP aims to improve this ranking by developing and implementing a healthcare improvement plan for the county by August 2013.
The lead organization, UWGMC, is an independent 501(c)(3) community service organization that provides a neutral table where diverse groups can partner and collaborate to produce measurable improvement in the lives of residents of Greater Mercer County area. UWGMC’s business model and philosophy supports its role as a “Community Impact Leader,” and its agenda focuses on three areas: education, income and health.
For more information about GMPHP please contact Antonia Lewis at 609.637.4906 or antonia.lewis@uwgmc.org.