In 1994, representatives from local hospitals in Kanawha County, West Virginia, initiated a discussion with other local organizations about working together to make better use of existing community resources to ensure citizens' health care needs were being met. As a result, the Kanawha Coalition for Community Health Improvement was formed.

The Coalition's mission is to identify and evaluate health risks and coordinate resources to measurably improve the health of the people of Kanawha County.

Every three years the Coalition works with the community to determine the top health issues by conducting a county-wide health needs assessment. This assessment includes a survey of key leaders in our community, a telephone survey among randomly selected households in Kanawha County, and careful analysis of existing research and data on health statistics for our county as compared to West Virginia and the Nation.

The latest assessment results were shared on March 2007 with attendees at our Health Issues Forum. They used assessment results to rank obesity, tobacco use, and lack of physical activity as the top health concerns in our county.

Now, hundreds of individuals are involved in a collaborative process to make Kanawha County a healthier community. Work Groups have been formed around each of the top issues and are meeting monthly. For the schedule of meetings click on Work Group Meetings.

Coalition Goals

1. Assess the health care needs of the citizens of Kanawha County.
2. Inventory available resources.
3. Determine unmet needs.
4. Evaluate and prioritize needs.
5. Involve affected organizations and constituencies in developing possible solutions.
6. Develop consensus.
7. Facilitate implementation.
8. Measure and evaluate outcomes.