HISTORY OF
HEALTHY MARIN PARTNERSHIP

In 1995, the Healthy Marin Partnership was formed in response to Senate Bill 697, a 1994 legislative mandate that required not-for-profit hospitals to complete a community needs assessment every three years. Each assessment guides community planning for the three years that follow.

Marin County chooses collaborative community assessment process. Leaders from the hospitals, office of education and county health and human services, along with other key stakeholders, joined forces in 1995 to produce the first community assessment.

1996 Community Needs Assessment: When the 1996 report was introduced, community leaders agreed that there were two key areas of unmet needs in Marin County: Access to healthcare, and youth wellness. Representatives from key organizations convened a task force named Children’s Health Insurance Access Committee (CHIAC) to address the issue of access to healthcare in Marin. Emphasizing prevention, Healthy Teens Marin was formed to work collaboratively on issues around youth wellness, creating and hosting Peer Summit and Parent University, both of which continue and are entering their 10th years.

1999 Community Needs Assessment: The 1999 Needs Assessment was published in collaboration with the North Bay Council, and recommended a continuing focus on access to healthcare and youth wellness, while convening new collaboratives to tackle issues related to immunizations and asthma.

2002 Community Needs Assessment and Report Card: The 2002 Assessment provided a detailed report on more than 100 quality-of-life indicators for Marin, measuring health in the broadest sense. When subsequent studies resulted in recognition that Marin has many important health issues, attention was focused on the fundamental lifestyle issues related to alcohol and tobacco use, healthy eating and active living – practices that can impact rates of diseases and chronic illnesses. With the new initiative of Healthy Choices Earlier In Life, the years 2001 through 2004 were spent learning how a community would begin to make measurable change.

2005 Community Needs Assessment and Plan: The 2005 Needs Assessment was broadened to include a plan to lead the Partnership into 2008. While the 2005 Plan continued to focus on key issues related to alcohol and tobacco use, healthy eating and active living, it acknowledged that prevention was the collective responsibility of the community to turn the curve and create an environment that would enable anyone, at any age, to make healthier choices.

2008 Community Needs Assessment and Plan: The 2008 Marin County Community Needs Assessment and Plan will be released in January 2008 and will again focus on tobacco use, alcohol abuse, healthy eating and active living (each non-genetic indicators of chronic disease and illness), reviewing accomplishments in those areas and considering future recommendations as community partners continue working to change the environment in which individual choices are made.

Healthy Marin Partnership
99 Montecillo Road
San Rafael, CA 94903
Phone: (415) 492-6311
Fax: (415) 492-6554

Go to top