The COVID-19 pandemic underscored a need for renewed emphasis on building strong relationships between public health and communities to ensure everyone can live their healthiest lives.

With support from the Kaiser Permanente National Community Benefit Fund and in partnership with Human Impact Partners, the CDC Foundation developed a set of recommendations and roadmap for building and strengthening partnerships between public health agencies and community-based organizations (CBOs).

Recommendations for Strengthening Partnerships Between Health Departments and Community-Based Organizations offers tactical and strategic recommendations stemming from conversations with more than 100 health departments and CBOs. The final recommendations aim to support U.S.-based public health agencies in:

• Cultivating relationships with CBOs to better prepare and respond to future public health emergencies and to pursue more equitable solutions in routine practice.
• More effectively promote community health objectives.
• Sharing power with CBOs to address historical disenfranchisement in decision making.

Ultimately, the recommendations envision a future where CBOs are integrated as critical decision-makers in the public health infrastructure, resulting in better health outcomes for all.

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