Hennepin County Public Health is working with local communities, community members and organizations to better understand the community’s health priorities and take important steps together to make improvements.
The county recently completed its community health assessment, a process that takes place every five years to assess the health of the population and support identification of the root causes of health problems in our community.
While Minnesota typically ranks high in overall health, there are significant disparities that still exist in our communities to achieve good health. In many ways, health disparities by race/ethnicity in Minnesota and in Hennepin County are among the worst in the country.
The health assessment helps monitor the health of adults and children who live in Hennepin County. It helps identify strengths and opportunities, including where there are disparities in health. The findings help the county prioritize work to improve health and eliminate those disparities. The county’s work extends far beyond the assessment alone: In the coming months, Hennepin County Public Health — in partnership with the community — will identify priorities and action plans to address the root causes of those issues.
“It is our responsibility as the county’s largest local public health agency to work with community to co-create solutions and to set priorities that set us on a path of community health improvement and disparity elimination,” said Sara Hollie, MPH, director of Hennepin County Public Health.
The process begins with a community health assessment, which is a summary of the health and well-being of Hennepin County residents. It also includes the social and environmental conditions that affect health.
The goal is to build a holistic picture of health, and to identify trends and health inequities. The process uses many data and information sources, including interviews with county and community partners, interviews with health system providers about youth mental health, and health systems’ own assessments about community health needs.
The community health assessment also included the county’s own Survey of the Health of All the Population and Environment or SHAPE survey. It also drew on sources such as surveys of Minnesota students, U.S. Census data and the American Community Survey, the state’s vital statistics, and trend data from electronic health records to better understand overall health and how common certain diseases are.
Analyzing those sources of information allows the county to understand root causes of differences in health status across the county and factors that go into that. The assessment found:
The conditions that shape residents’ everyday lives shape opportunities to live and grow, which in turn affect health outcomes. Because there are disparities in opportunities to thrive, there are disparities in health and well-being. The assessment identified challenges including:
"Our work with the community gives us a better understanding of the complete picture of our community's health and opportunities for improvement. Without their input, we might not get all the important insights that allow us to then work in partnership to better meet needs," said Komal Mehrotra, manager for the Health Evaluation and Assessment Team.
Read the full 2024-2028 community health assessment online.
"We cannot do this work alone – the input from our community and our partner organizations are instrumental in helping us achieve those goals," said Public Health Director Sara Hollie.
The community health assessment findings play a key role in the formation of the community health improvement plan. This plan develops activities to improve priority health issues across Hennepin County.
A large community visioning session kickstarted planning in April. In May, Hennepin County Public Health began the planning process with the public health departments from the cities of Bloomington, Edina, Richfield, and Minneapolis, community members, health care organizations, health plans, mental health organizations and providers. Participatory planning was completed in the fall, centering community vision and the CHA data.
The vision includes:
Priorities include mental health/mental well-being, access to basic needs, and social isolation and connectedness.
The work will shift to action teams beginning in January 2026. “We are excited to share our community’s findings and action steps and look forward to continued partnership to improve health and well-being,” said Jen O’ Brien, community health manager.
In 2025, Hennepin County Public Health also is working to update its strategic plan for 2026-2028.
The strategic plan guides decision making, names priorities and helps the department align its work with community partners.
This process kicked off in January 2025 with bringing together staff and community partners to share department strengths, opportunities, and other observations. Through engagement with this leadership group, all department staff, and community members through a variety of channels, the team summarized early findings as follows:
From June through July, the group has worked to draft updated mission, vision, values and goals statements for the department, and met with additional community members and organizations to better understand the priorities and feedback previously identified. The team also incorporated findings from the CHA and work happening through the CHIP to help inform strategic planning.
In August and September, the team has been sharing findings back with community and drafting objectives and strategies. A third round of community engagement uses a community survey to better understand perceptions, preferences, and levels of trust between community members and the department.
“To serve our community as effectively as possible, we need to hear from community members, staff, and partners about what we’re doing well and what we can improve,” said Justin Navratil, strategic initiatives program manager for Hennepin County Public Health. “In talking with community, it’s clear that we have opportunities for improvement in accessing resources and information, building trust and relationships with communities, and centering community voice in our work. Without this input, we wouldn’t have the complete picture needed to ensure the strategic plan meets the community’s needs.”
That feedback is essential.
“Hearing from our community gives us a holistic picture of needs and direction to help us address those needs,” Hollie said.
Learn more about the strategic planning process and offer feedback.
While the Community Health Improvement Plan and strategic plan bear similarities and work together, there are important distinctions: The strategic plan guides internal work, while the Community Health Improvement Partnership identifies priorities and also awards funding to communities when it’s available. Between 2020 and 2022, it provided more than $275,000 to 85 community-led projects.
“We fund community-led ideas because communities are experts on local needs and they know what works best for them,” O’Brien said.
