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Tri‑county community health improvement plan approved; Benton County board signs on to three priority areas
Summary
Benton County’s public health staff presented a regional Community Health Assessment and Improvement Plan coordinated by the Central Minnesota Alliance with CentraCare; the board approved three priority areas: community connection, community stability and community access.
Benton County public health staff asked the county board to adopt a regional Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) developed through a Central Minnesota Alliance that includes Sherburne, Stearns and Benton counties and CentraCare. The board approved the plan and its three priority areas for 2025–2028.
Public health staff described the CHIP development process: three committees examined community partnerships (capacity), quantitative data (community status) and lived experience (context). The committees triangulated those findings to identify priority areas and measurable goals. The assessment and plan satisfy the statutory requirement for community health boards to complete a community health assessment every five years.
Jacqueline (public health staff) summarized the plan’s three priority areas: community connection (mental health, social connection, substance use), community stability (housing, economic security, child care, food access) and community access (medical and dental access, telehealth, transportation and insurance). “Our community health assessment is a requirement of our statute... to complete this process once every five years,” Jacqueline said, describing the legal and programmatic basis for the work.
Why it matters: the CHIP directs county public health priorities and regional coordination on prevention, care access and social determinants of health. Staff said they will use a newly developed data dashboard to produce commissioner‑district health profiles and track a set of shared metrics across the tri‑county region.
Public comment and next steps: staff reported 21 public responses to the plan during the comment period; most respondents were community partners that also ranked the three priority areas as important. The board voted to approve the CHIP and directed staff to submit the final document to the state and begin implementation with regional partners.
Ending: The county will begin implementation and monitoring of the CHIP with its Central Minnesota Alliance partners and CentraCare and will adjust the plan if community data show changing needs over the planning period.
