Places where we live, work, play and go to school profoundly shape our health — and places aren’t created equal. Some are filled with amenities while others lack basic infrastructure.

Get Healthy San Mateo County (GHSMC) works with local planners and other city staff, policy-makers, and community leaders to build health into our communities, to make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone in San Mateo County.

The following provides examples of the types of strategies we offer our partners. GHSMC strategic priorities include Healthy Housing, Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Schools, and Healthy Economy. You can find more information on GHSMC’s strategic priorities here.

Partnership Opportunities include: 

Policy

• Policy research. We conduct research on best practices, local policies, and comparative policy analysis for local policy needs
• Recommendations. We provide recommendations for health-supporting policies focused on GHSMC’s strategic priority areas

Research

• Data portal. Information about who lives throughout the county and the health challenges they face can help staff identify needs and help decision-makers find effective interventions. We provide data on GHSMC priority areas including maps and charts. Health profiles for each community in San Mateo County will be released this winter here.
• Data requests. Organizations can submit requests for tailored data needs. Data can include health, demographic, social, economic, and environmental topics
• Technical assistance. We provide technical assistance, expertise on community needs assessments, community-based participatory research, mapping and help with other research needs

Planning

• Health advisory. We serve on planning advisory committees to bring a health perspective to local planning decisions such as zoning and long-range planning
• Community participation. We support community participation in planning processes through education, process facilitation, health presentations and outreach
• Safe and active transportation. We developed a Safe and Active Transportation Assessment Tool to help cities analyze active transportation policies and efforts
• Walkability and bikeability assessments. We provide resources and expertise for implementing these assessments
• Key experts. We bring in key experts to help policy makers consider important decisions related to community health

Capacity Building

• Health Impact Assessment (HIA). We can conduct HIAs to forecast the health impacts of a proposed policy, plan or program before it is implemented. This can be done as a technical document or a collaborative process with diverse stakeholders
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). We provide technical assistance in reviewing environmental planning analyses to maximize health consideration

Funding

• Community Implementation Funding. We offer an open funding opportunity every fall to support community-based organizations, cities and other non-profits as they advance GHSMC strategic priorities. 
• Identify funding sources. GHSMC helps jurisdictions identify funding opportunities for creating healthy, equitable communities, submit letters of support for grant proposals, and provide health data to strengthen applications

Communication

• Presentations on community health to elected officials and community groups. We can help decision-makers and community members understand the various health dimensions of planning and policy decisions
• Health framing. Health can provide a powerful lens to view community issues and opportunities, and a concept that diverse stakeholders can all connect with. We provide health framing and data for reports, presentations and other communications

Do you have an idea and want to partner? Contact Rosa Torpis at RTorpis@smcgov.org for more information.