Key strategies for promoting and sustaining environmental health programs through capacity building.Editor's note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : This is a very special issue of the Journal. It is only on a rare occasion that we target a specific topic and then devote most of the Journal's pages to it. For years, we have lamented la·ment·ed adj. Mourned for: our late lamented president. la·ment  ed·ly adv. the slow erosion of this nation's
environmental health system. We now finally have something to offer that
heralds a reversal of this discouraging dis·cour·age tr.v. dis·cour·aged, dis·cour·ag·ing, dis·cour·ag·es 1. To deprive of confidence, hope, or spirit. 2. To hamper by discouraging; deter. 3. and decades-old trend. Because the condition of our system is a matter of such fundamental concern to both the practice and cause of environmental health, we have decided to devote this issue of the Journal to the work that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. (CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation ) have been doing to rebuild the capacity of the environmental health system through its capacity-building cooperative agreement program. We can think of no other initiative that holds such promise for our work as this one does. We are grateful for the opportunity to present this material. We thank CDC's state, local, and academic partners from around the country for the time they have devoted to writing their stories so that we might share them in this manner with the environmental health community. We consider the work that CDC has been accomplishing through its cooperative-agreement program to build and enhance the capacities of our nation's environmental health system to be nothing less than urgent. This work and your processing of it have the potential to develop even more positive momentum on behalf of the rebuilding of this critical system. In the interests of that cause, we are only too happy to devote this Journal to the single topic of environmental health capacity building. CDC's capacity-building cooperative-agreement program is one of many projects conducted in the agency's Environmental Health Services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract Branch (EHSB). This work supports the CDC/National Center for Environmental Health's goal of revitalizing re·vi·tal·ize tr.v. re·vi·tal·ized, re·vi·tal·iz·ing, re·vi·tal·iz·es To impart new life or vigor to: plans to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods; tried to revitalize a flagging economy. the practice of environmental health as outlined in the National Strategy to Revitalize re·vi·tal·ize tr.v. re·vi·tal·ized, re·vi·tal·iz·ing, re·vi·tal·iz·es To impart new life or vigor to: plans to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods; tried to revitalize a flagging economy. Environmental Public Health Services. The capacity-building program has funded state, local, and academic partners since 2001. These capacity-building measures are all based on a framework of the 10 essential services and core competencies A core competency is something that a firm can do well and that meets the following three conditions specified by Hamel and Prahalad (1990):
The nine articles featured in this issue describe how various state and local jurisdictions have built capacity and implemented interventions to address environmental health priorities in their communities. You will also find helpful rubrics and tools in these articles that will aid you in building your program's capacity. Examples are * toolkits for developing environmental health educational programs, * training modules and materials. * templates for writing policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental , and * models for implementing environmental health program activities. The state and local programs that we are featuring have been innovative in addressing environmental health concerns in their communities. The academic centers have demonstrated the importance of their partnership with environmental health programs in solving issues by providing technical resources and training opportunities not readily available within the practicing environmental health community. A listing of other interesting and instructive in·struc·tive adj. Conveying knowledge or information; enlightening. in·struc tive·ly adv. environmental health
activities and products can be found on the EHSB Web site
(www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs). Information on the cooperative agreement and all
of its funded partners can be found on the Building Environmental Health
Capacity Web page (www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/CapacityBuilding).
We again thank CDC's state, local, and academic partners for their willingness to prepare this material for the benefit of Journal readers everywhere. It is our sincere hope that this special edition of the Journal will spur environmental health personnel around the country to use some of the ideas and tools that these articles describe. In that way we can build upon the initial work that CDC has funded and extend our success in capacity building well beyond where these projects have already taken it. --Journal Managing Editor Nelson Fabian |
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