Atlantic County presents Community Health Improvement Plan focused on transportation, healthy food and care access

Kara Jansen, Division Director of Public Health for Atlantic County, presented the county's 2024 Community Health Assessment and the Community Health Improvement Plan to the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 19, 2025, outlining priorities and partners for work through 2028.

Jansen said the assessment involved 563 resident survey responses and input from 30 partner agencies, and identified six priority needs: housing, mental health, food security, transportation, health knowledge and childcare. The improvement plan narrows the county's initial work to three target areas: transportation, access to healthy food, and access to care and services.

The nut of the presentation: the assessment (required every four years under standards set by the New Jersey State Health Department) combined quantitative sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System with local focus groups and key-informant interviews to capture service gaps and community assets. Jansen said partners included local health care providers, nonprofit service organizations and faith-based groups; she named Jewish Family Services, the Mental Health Association, the Rescue Mission, New Jersey AIDS Alliance, Shore Medical Center and AtlantiCare among collaborators.

Jansen described methods and findings: the public survey covered about 42 health and wellness topics and drew the largest share of responses from Atlantic City (about 22 percent), Egg Harbor Township (about 13 percent) and Galloway (about 9 percent). The single largest age cohort of respondents was the 60-to-64 group. She said the assessment also mapped food-access points and used community context assessments to sample rural residents, people experiencing homelessness, the ALICE population (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed), families with disabilities and veterans.

Key findings presented to the commissioners emphasized structural barriers: transportation gaps, housing instability, limited access to healthy food and uneven health literacy. Jansen said those groups with the greatest barriers included single parents, people with disabilities, unhoused residents and people with co-occurring mental-health conditions.

For the improvement plan, Jansen listed early objectives the county will pursue with partners: develop a transportation guide in coordination with the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization; promote complete-and-clean-streets planning with municipalities (including bike-path connectivity); expand health-literacy workshops and a referral network modeled on Unite Us to connect residents to services; and increase nutrition education and food-security assessments through cooperation with school districts. She said the plan is a "living document" with process measures and flexible timelines and that full and condensed versions would be posted on the county website before the end of October.

Commissioners asked about outreach and representativeness of the survey. Jansen said partners shared the survey online and in person, and that the county did not purchase paid social-media advertising for the general survey distribution. Commissioners expressed interest in broader outreach next cycle, including paid social advertising and targeted engagements with college students.

Jansen said the county will continue to operate statutorily required maternal-child health services (including an infant mortality review team) regardless of whether those topics surfaced as top priorities in the survey. She closed by offering copies of the assessment and providing contact information for the Health Planning Unit: (645) 5853.

The county commissioners did not take formal action on the plan at the meeting; the presentation was provided for review and public information, and commissioners asked staff to continue outreach and coordination with partners.