The City of Milwaukee Health Department recently released a Planning and Policy Recommendations Report that will serve as guidance for the Milwaukee Health Department and Milwaukee’s public health partners in their work towards achieving the goal of making Milwaukee America’s Healthiest City again.
The recommendations came out of an intensive strategic planning process called Mobilizing Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP), which was developed by the National Association of City and County Health Officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The process, which was begun three years ago, has been a collaborative effort by the City of Milwaukee Health Department and over 150 partners from business, government, academia and social services, resulting in a major Community Health Evaluation, development of nine MAPP Action Teams, and a detailed list of potential public health policies and action steps.
The City of Milwaukee Health Department’s success in implementing the MAPP process has been nationally recognized and is serving as a model for other large communities across the nation as they conduct their own community health evaluations.
The Center for Urban Population Health played an active role in this process, with our faculty and staff serving on the MAPP Planning and Policy Phase Steering Committee, the Action Teams, and on the Research Team. The Center applauds the City of Milwaukee Health Department’s dedication and commitment to the process of building community consensus on strategies to guide policy and action to improve Milwaukee’s health.
As part of the Center’s commitment to helping to improve the health of urban communities, especially the City of Milwaukee (the Center’s home), the Center for Urban Population Health and the City of Milwaukee Health Department have been assessing the health of the City of Milwaukee on several outcomes, presented in the Milwaukee Health Report. The report complements the work on the city-wide MAPP assessment and will help inform the City of Milwaukee Health Department and its partners on progress towards their goal.
