Owen Arthur said, "For he who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything." And at PHAB, we are looking ahead to the coming months with hope. While I do not minimize the impact and trauma that COVID-19, racism, and political divisiveness has caused, we do have reason to hope. Since April, we have been inspired by the renewed movement toward racial justice, with more energy and community activism than I have seen since my days as a community organizer in St. Louis and Chicago from 1969-1972. In recent days and weeks, we have seen some substantial movement toward science-based public policy at state, Tribal, and local levels as we address the surging COVID-19 pandemic. With the promise of effective vaccines on the horizon in early 2021 and a new administration that is pledging new levels of energy and commitment to fully meet the challenges posed by the pandemic, we have reason to hope that more resources will be put toward state, Tribal, local, and territorial public health and public health infrastructure soon.

 

Our hope is tempered by our knowledge that health departments have been stretched well beyond their limits. Leadership and frontline workers are tired and have faced personal and professional challenges unlike any we have seen before. And yet, nearly every day, I hear a new, inspiring story of a public health worker or department that demonstrates our passion to work relentlessly to improve the health, well-being, and equity of our communities.

 

We want you to know that we hear you and we see you. And at PHAB, we have been making adjustments in our policies and practices to support you. From amending accreditation policies and processes to creating flexibility for grantees and adjusting our own expectations about how we accomplish our work, we have worked hard to position PHAB to remain a partner to advancing public health practice through innovation and accreditation during this remarkable year.

 

Our new organizational strategic plan is a direct response to this turbulent environment. With leadership and guidance from our Board of Directors and national partners, our new plan, which runs from October 1, 2020-March 31, 2022, is now final and is summarized below. We hope that you see yourselves reflected in it, for all that we do at PHAB is meant to be in service to you, our public health heroes.

What the strategic plan means in practice:

 

This priority reflects our focus on building strategic efforts with our partners to support public health infrastructure, the education of policymakers, and enhance our own and health departments' abilities to communicate the value of accreditation to our stakeholders.

This priority focuses on the identifying, celebrating, and disseminating innovative practices in health departments and the incorporation of innovation into PHAB processes and products.

 

This priority reflects PHAB's unequivocal commitment to incorporating anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of our work, internally and externally.

 

We are committed to updating our accreditation standards and measures during the next year and releasing a new version of them early in 2022. As part of this priority, we will also provide new tools and resources that are useful to health departments working toward improving their performance.

 

This priority reflects our focus on serving our customers, through assessing and streamlining processing and exploring the incentivization of accreditation/reaccreditation.

 

Our efforts here will focus on the development of new PHAB programs and products to recognize health department performance along a spectrum, both those that are not-yet-ready to be accredited and to those who wish to demonstrate excellence beyond the existing standards and measures.

 

Together, these six priorities will chart our course for the next 18 months. We will continue to seek and use your feedback to inform our work during this time and make course corrections as needed. I invite you to explore our strategic plan in detail  and stay engaged with PHAB as we do our best to meet your needs. And as always, we look forward to your feedback.