Healthy Communities
In order to address health concerns on a community level, residents and organizations have been coming together to form local Community Health Coalitions. These coalitions can be a means of conserving and utilizing resources more efficiently, and a powerful vehicle for impacting health through policy, systems, and environmental changes.
Purdue Extension is a partner in local health coalitions. For over 15 years, through the work of the Purdue Extension Coalition Engagement Team, Extension Educators, Community Wellness Coordinators (CWCs), and others have gained skills and support to elevate the work with their local coalitions.
Information is collected annually related to the work of coalitions across the state. An interactive map has been created that shows up to three coalitions in the county, their focus, and their status as of the time of the information. When there is staff transition, some counties may not have data for a year.
2025 Coalitions Reported by Purdue Extension
2024 Coalitions Reported by Purdue Extension
2023 Coalitions Reported by Purdue Extension
Resources
Learn more about how to build a coalition – Building a Coalition: Investing in Health
With our partners in Connections IN Health (anchor to below), a series created to help those in communities determine their readiness for educational and programmatic efforts and initiatives.
The Purdue Extension Coalition Engagement Team has offered a variety of professional development opportunities over the years. Below is a four-part series focusing on how you can assess Community Readiness in your coalitions, partnerships, and communities. It may be readiness to engage in a new health focus, reinvigorate a stagnant one, or even assess if a group is ready to engage in certain programming. Community readiness is the degree to which a community is willing and prepared to take action on an issue. Levels range from no awareness to full community ownership.
Partners at Connections IN Health (Indiana CTSI) and Purdue Extension Community Development have utilized this model and led this series. The series overviews community readiness, details on how to assess it, how you utilize the information, and how you share it in the community to help them move forward. The series was published in January and February of 2022.
Further resources can be found through Coalition Trip, a collaborative website hosted by our partners at the Indiana CTSI Community Health Partnerships.
Community Health Partnerships (CHeP) of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) aims to link the experience and skills of community leaders, health professionals, and university researchers to improve the health of Indiana citizens. Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Notre Dame along with other universities across the state are collaborating to engage Indiana communities and citizens as partners in the research process to achieve the goal of a healthier state. With the advice and participation of community leaders, CHeP seeks to provide better ways to conduct and disseminate research about health to Indiana’s communities and citizens. Purdue Extension is a crucial partner in this statewide work which helps to expand the reach of CHeP to be statewide in scope.
- An initiative named Connections in Health began in 2018 and is in strong partnership with Purdue Extension. CHeP originally contracted with IDOH to oversee the statewide chronic health disease coalitions. These included: CADI (Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Stroke Coalition of IN), HHWA (Hoosier Health and Wellness Alliance), INJAC (Indiana Joint Asthma Coalition). Purdue Extension professionals have been key members of subcommittees and initiatives of each of these coalitions.
- Purdue Extension professionals in several counties have worked closely with CINH to listen to community health needs and build implementation plans. The current focus is now on Public Health Areas 1 and 7 where Purdue Extension professionals continue to play a key role in this community work.
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