|
Tioga County Partnership for Community Health (TCPCH)
 For more than a decade the Tioga County Partnership for Community Health has offered a vision for healthy communities, a forum for collaboration of committed partners, grant resources for program implementation, and support for a range of programs designed to address the identified health and human service needs of all 41,373 Tioga County citizens.
In 1993, individuals from Laurel Health System, Mansfield University, and the Tioga County Human Services Agency began planning for a community health partnership that would define and address health needs in the community. The goal was to develop a countywide health plan that would demonstrate ways in which unrelated providers of service could work together to meet health and social service needs. The Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Tioga County Development Corporation, the Northcentral Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center and Wellsboro Family Practice quickly joined the effort and the Tioga County Partnership for Community Health was formed.
By 1995, the Partnership had been chosen, as one of only 25 sites from a diverse range of communities across the United States, to participate in the Kellogg National Community Care Network Demonstration Program. In 1997, the Partnership was awarded a Health Resources & Services Administration Rural Network Development grant in order to expand the efforts initiated during the Community Care Network project and to continue development of a countywide health plan. In the same year, the Partnership was selected to serve as one of seven pilot sites for the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP). SHIP explored how community partnerships and the Department of Health could collaborate to make a positive impact and develop creative solutions to local health problems.
In 1998, the Partnership formed a Board of Directors, an Executive Committee and a Finance Committee to oversee operations. A full time Executive Director and support staff was hired to coordinate activities, ensure representation from all potential members and organizations, and gather input from the communities being served. The Partnership was incorporated in October 2000 as a public non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and currently boasts membership of over 360 individuals and 25 organizations.
Partnership members meet monthly as representatives of 15 Work Groups, each of which addresses a specific health or quality of life issue. Work Group Chairs hold seats on the Board of Directors. The Board also consists of three at-large members elected from and by the full Partnership and one director from each full member organization and each founding member organization. One Tioga County Commissioner also sits on the Board of Directors. An Executive Committee is selected from the Board of Directors and reviews and guides the activities of the Executive Director and staff.
Examples of Partnership accomplishments using this collaborative approach range from a dental clinic for the underserved to an after school program for at-risk children, from programs that promote fitness and healthy eating to initiatives that improve the quality of care for the elderly and for persons with chronic diseases. The Partnership addressed the low immunization rates for children and in two years raised the rate from 45% to 89%. A hallmark of the Partnership’s success has been the capacity to scientifically identify needs, find program models that have demonstrated effectiveness, seek resources to address needs or enable implementation of programs and to match appropriate partners with new or innovative opportunities.
For more information please visit the Partnership’s website at www.tiogapartners.org
|
Area Health Education Center (AHEC)
