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August 18 -20, 2008: Assessment Initiative Conference

The Assessment Initiative Conference is from August 18 to 20, 2008, in Atlanta. Registration deadline: August 4. No registration fee for the conference. Abstracts for the poster session are due by July 18 and should be e-mailed to Nelson Adekoya at nba7@cdc.gov.

About Us

The New York States Assessment Initiative works through five strategies to strengthen assessment capacity, infrastructure and effectiveness. They are:

  1. Understand current practice: Understand and strengthen current community health assessment practice. Translating Data into Action: The Impact of Community Health Assessments in New York State explains impact from the perspective of assessment practitioners.
  2. Identify and respond to training needs:Assess community health assessment training and technical assistance needs, followed by implementation and evaluation.
    • Training Resources
    • Follow-up evaluations of trainings implemented by the New York State Assessment Initiative
  3. Improve data access: Increase access to public health data and ensure it user-friendly.
  4. Share assessment practice: Disseminate assessment practice with New York state and other states nationally. The NYAI works with four partner states, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont on assessment methods, systems and approaches, and other assessment initiative states.
  5. Develop tool to evaluate community health assessments: Develop a web-based tool that determines usefulness of community health assessments.
    • Phase 1 (2003-04): Literature Review (pdf version 191 KB, 53 pp) and identification of criteria that define useful community health assessments. The literature review was subcontracted to Rand Health to inform the development of a web-based tool to determine and enhance the usefulness of CHAs. The authors found no rigorous, systematic reviews of CHAs, nor any comprehensive summaries of CHA strengths, weaknesses, and outcomes. The authors reviewed descriptive reports of a number of CHA processes throughout the US. This review and subsequent discussions led us to identify 21 criteria to describe the usefulness of CHAs.
    • Phase 2 (2004-05): Development and piloting of web survey in five counties in New York - Clinton, Cortland, Dutchess, Monroe and Schenectady
    • Phase 3 (2005-06): Evaluate effectiveness of web survey that evaluates community health assessment usefulness, and implement in communties outside New York.

The New York State Assessment Initiative cycle is funded through a cooperative agreeement with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Assessment Initiative. It is supported by partners within the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), community partners, partner states - Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont; and assessment intiative states. This initiative is coordinated by the Public Health Information Group (PHIG) within NYSDOH.