Indiana Partnership for Healthy Communities

The Indiana Partnership for Healthy Communities (IN-PHC) is a collaboration between the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health (FSPH) and The Polis Center at IUPUI.

Established in 2012 with support from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (I-CTSI), the mission of IN-PHC is to make the knowledge generated by communities and academic institutions more accessible to the public, and to translate that knowledge into practices that improve public health.

The partnership helps build the capacity of hospitals, local health departments, and community-based organizations to more effectively address an area’s health needs by considering socio-economic and other geographically-related determinants of health. An important feature of an IN-PHC project is mapping and spatial analysis.

For example, the partnership helps healthcare and public health partners identify geographic populations for targeted health intervention and education programs. We also assist non-profit hospitals complete their required IRS community health needs assessments (CHNA). This includes helping hospital partners to identify and prioritize community health concerns in their service areas and to discover community-based resources that they can engage to help community members protect and advance their health.