The Greater Lowell Health Alliance kicks off the 2022 Greater Lowell Community Health Needs Assessment!

We Need YOUR help!

Calling all change makers! Thanks to Dr. Leland Ackerson, an associate professor at UMass Lowell, a group/class of public health students will be contacting an identified list of stakeholders for interviews. We are so grateful for this collaboration. We need your voice to capture data from all 8 communities, as our road map for community well-being is being formed.

Our focus groups are already underway, and we are so excited to collect our community member's opinions, virtually! 6 of our Task Forces and the HEALing Communities Study Coalition, will be holding focus groups, in their respective focus area. Thanks to Larissa Gaias's Service Learning Class, Focus Groups will soon be facilitated by students.

The GLHA, in partnership with Lowell General Hospital, UMass Lowell, and many other community partners, conducts the CHNA every three years in our collective effort to identify the community’s most critical community health resources and needs. This includes all 8 towns in the Greater Lowell region (Billerica, Chelmsford, Dunstable, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough and Westford). This needs assessment provides the framework for our development of the Community Health Improvement Plan, as well as guides the activities of our GLHA task forces and our grant-making. For partners, the needs assessment can serve as a tool for strategic planning, applying for grant funding, or identifying opportunity for collaboration on addressing health needs and disparities. 

We are now in the data collection time frame until April, using our community survey (available digitally, on paper and via live survey administration, (currently in 4 languages)), dozens of listening sessions or focus groups, and interviews with key informants and stakeholders. After closing data collection in the spring, we will combine our primary data with existing data from the state and national level, in order to produce a single, cohesive narrative, that answers the question: What does our community NEED? 

By participating, you are helping us make sure we represent the perspective of as many community members as possible. We ask a few demographic questions (age, gender, race etc.), and how your experience has been with specific health or safety items in your community. All of your answers are anonymous. It should only take 15-20 minutes, and once you are finished, you can be entered to win one of several gift cards.

Results and findings will be public domain in September, 2022. Find the survey at our website: https://www.greaterlowellhealthalliance.org/health-priorities/needs-assessment/

How Can You or Your Organization Help with the 2022 CHNA?

This assessment allows community members to tell us what they want to see from health and wellness services in the next three years and is a major data source and strategy guide for dozens of health agencies, community organizations, non-profits, and advocates across the Greater Lowell region.

We hope you will continue to support us in collecting this critical information, in any of the following ways:

1. Take the survey! 

Any person who lives in Lowell, Dracut, Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Billerica, Westford or Dunstable is eligible to participate, and that very likely includes you! 

2. Please distribute the survey link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GLCHNA2022!

You can do this via your list servs within your agency, directly to clients, on your personal or professional social media, accounts, or anywhere else you have an audience. Please feel free to write your own pitch for participation (you are the expert one what will resonate best with the people you serve!) but if it is helpful, we have provided this template text; feel free to copy-paste!

“The Greater Lowell Health Alliance, in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Lowell General Hospital, invites you to participate in their 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment Survey! This survey will ask you about yourself, your health needs, and what you think your community should be prioritizing in the next three years in regard to community health, safety, and resources. Your input will be used to help leaders make decisions about funding, implementing programs, and other critical community decisions!"

And even though the survey is completely anonymous, you can opt to be redirected to a secure site to be entered to win one of five $50 gift cards. 

Anyone who lives in Lowell, Dracut, Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Billerica, Westford or Dunstable can participate at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GLCHNA2022

If you have any questions, please contact: Devon Goldberg, dgoldberg@greaterlowellhealthalliance.org  

3. Let us know if you’d like to host paper copies! We can arrange for hardcopies of the survey to be dropped off at your site and then pick them up once they are completed; many of our partners believe this is a better way to reach the people they serve, so we are happy to coordinate. We also have the survey available in multiple languages! We also have 7 amazing interns to assist!

This project would not be possible without the continued support from our community partners; we appreciate all you do to support your community, and we hope that the 2022 Greater Lowell Community Health Needs Assessment will be an asset for you, too! 

Greater Lowell Health Alliance

55 Technology Drive, Lowell, MA 01851 - 978-934-8368