In 2010, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) received funds from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) to support and conduct Health Impact Assessments (HIAs). This assistance provided an opportunity to collaborate with Douglas County Public Health to evaluate the County’s draft Comprehensive Plan from a public health perspective. Douglas County Public Health and MDH developed 12 health indicators based on community concerns identified by the HIA Work Group. The health indicators included identifying aging population and senior services, connectivity, recreational amenities (community facilities, gardens, parks and trails), economic opportunities, mixed-use development, traffic accidents, and complete streets/traffic calming. The project team assessed and made recommendations that will hopefully be incorporated into the final county comprehensive plan.
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This Health Impact Assessment Report first appeared in The Cross-Sector Toolkit for Health. The Cross-Sector Toolkit for Health was originally developed by the Health Impact Project, formerly a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The creation of this resource was supported by a grant from the Health Impact Project. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
