Hester Street provided technical assistance, community engagement services, training and resources for Take Care New York 2020 (TCNY), the city’s blueprint for giving all NYC residents the chance to live a healthier life. We worked with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) and 8 community-based Planning Partners across the 5 boroughs to turn community-identified health priorities into implementable projects. We engaged community members and stakeholders in a process to review community health data, select one priority health objective, map existing community assets and resources, develop health improvement strategies and create an action plan to advance their selected intervention.
We developed a toolkit that includes tools to understand and interpret local health data, plan and run community workshops, identify and leverage local resources and produce an actionable plan. We also developed a planning manual, interventions reference guide, resources about funding and partnership opportunities for the TCNY Planning Partners. In a follow-on contract with NYC DOHMH, we are providing additional capacity-building workshops – with complementary tools, materials, agendas, logistics and facilitation supports – for TCNY Planning Partners in Health and the Built Environment. Participating partners will develop understanding of how the built environment impacts health and identify priorities for promoting health through the built environment in their neighborhoods.
