Community Health Assessment aNd Group Evaluation (CHANGE) Tool

CDC’s Healthy Communities Program identified a need for new ways of assessing and documenting policy, systems, and environmental change in communities. After reviewing community assessment literature and local and state assessment tools and receiving internal and external partner input, the Healthy Communities Program developed Community Health Assessment aNd Group Evaluation (CHANGE). This assessment tool provides communities with a snapshot of local strategies currently in place. It also helps communities identify areas where such strategies are still needed. The CHANGE tool is currently under development by CDC’s Healthy Communities Program and is being pilot tested by funded communities.

How the CHANGE Tool Is Used

CHANGE can be used to

• Gain a picture of the policy, systems, and environmental change strategies currently in place throughout the community.
• Develop a community action plan for improving policies, systems, and the environment to facilitate and support healthy lifestyles.
• Assist with prioritizing community needs and allocating available resources.

CHANGE helps guide development of a local coalition’s community action plan. The tool walks coalition members through the community assessment process and provides summary data about current policy, systems, and environmental change strategies. This helps communities define and prioritize possible areas of improvement. With this type of information as a guide, coalition members can map out a course for using specifically targeted action to make positive and sustainable changes in their communities. It can be used annually to assess current policy, systems, and environmental change strategies and offer new priorities for future efforts.

The Five Sectors of the CHANGE Tool

CHANGE addresses each of the five sectors noted below. For each sector, the tool includes specific community health indicators related to physical activity, nutrition, tobacco use, chronic disease management, and leadership.

• Schools: Places of learning (e.g., elementary, middle, and high schools, whether private, public, or parochial).
• Work Sites: Places of employment (e.g., private offices, restaurants, retail establishments, government offices).
• Health Care: Places where people go to receive preventive care or treatment, or emergency health care services (e.g., hospitals, private doctors’ offices, community clinics).
• Community-At-Large: Places where people live and encompasses community-wide efforts (e.g., transportation initiatives, programs addressing health disparities and social determinants of health, changes to the built environment).
• Community Institutions/Organizations: Places within the community that provide specific human services (e.g., childcare settings, faith-based organizations, senior centers).

Tracking Progress with the CHANGE Tool

CHANGE is a data collection tool that allows coalition members to track progress across a five-point scale, so incremental changes can be noted. As problem areas are identified, health-related policies are implemented, and systems and environmental change strategies are put in place, coalition members can document the population-level changes made within their communities.

CHANGE’s Multiple Benefits

• It assists community partners with reinforcing their coalition’s principles.
• It helps define a coalition’s decision-making process.
• It creates a common foundational knowledge of policy, systems, and environmental change among coalition members to be used for prioritizing community needs and developing the community action plan.
• More importantly, it promotes local ownership by providing an opportunity to involve community members throughout the process. CHANGE encourages community engagement by emphasizing communication and collaboration during its completion and use.