Our Community’s Health Plans And Priorities

Health Department Assessments and Plans

All local health departments in Colorado are required by law and rule to provide certain public health services to their communities, including specific core public health services. Local health departments are also required to complete a Community Health Improvement Planning process every five years, guided by the Colorado Health Assessment and Planning System (CHAPS). Two essential pieces of that planning process are the Community Health Assessment (CHA) and the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).

Community Health Assessment (CHA)

One of the first steps in the community improvement planning process is to complete a CHA every five years. CHAs allow us to learn about the health of the Adams County community, including:

• the overall health of the population;
• factors contributing to higher health risks or poorer health outcomes of identified populations; and
• community assets and resources that can improve and support population health.

Gathering input from the community, stakeholders, and partners is a critical part of building the CHA. We use the information from the CHA to strategically inform and prioritize the health issues that will be addressed in the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). The 2022 Adams County CHA was prepared by Tri-County Health Department (now closed) and included partnering with community-based organizations in Adams County to engage more meaningfully with community members and partners.

2022 Adams County Community Health Assessment (released May 2022)

Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)

The 2025-2029 CHIP was approved by the Adams County Board of Health on March 20, 2025. This is the first CHIP for Adams County and is a result of the collaborative efforts of the Adams County staff, community-based organizational partners, and community members that make up the Adams County Thriving Communities Collective (ACTCC). The CHIP is the result of over a year’s collective work by the ACTCC and guided by community outreach.

The ACTCCC used a collective impact approach to develop the CHIP grounded in the knowledge that health is supported and highly influenced by the communities and systems in which we live. The ACTCC elevated three community health priority areas which were approved in January 2024 by the Adams County Board of Health: 

• Access to Care
• Economic Security
• Housing.

View the 2025-2029 Adams County Community Health Improvement Plan

The CHIP report provides an overview of the development process, summarizes data gathered from community outreach and public health data systems, and presents detailed information about the ACTCC’s plan to address Access to Care, Economic Security, and Housing over the next five years.

Appendices – some appendices are included in the report itself and others are linked below. Formatting in this way has allowed us to make sure all appendices are accessible and follow Colorado’s 8 CCR 1501-11 Technology Accessibility Rules.

• Appendix A – Community Survey Results, Adams County (coming soon!)
• Appendix B – Community Survey Results, Zencity (coming soon!)
• Appendix C – Community Survey Sample Comparison (see report, page 49)
• Appendix D – Priority Populations (coming soon!)
• Appendix E - Focus Group Summaries (coming soon!)
• Appendix F - Partner Survey results (coming soon!)
• Appendix G – Capacity Assessment Matrix (see report, page 54)
• Appendix H – Group Agreements (see report, page 57)
• Appendix I – The 5 Why’s Tool (see report, page 58)
• Appendix J – Feasibility/Urgency Strategy Matrices (see report, page 59)
• Appendix K - Logic Models (coming soon!)
• Appendix L - Prioritization Matrices (coming soon!)
• Appendix M – Asset Inventory (see report, page 60)

Contact

If you would like to learn more about our assessment and planning processes, submit feedback or ask a question about any of these plans, or to get involved, please contact the Public Health Planning & Evaluation Team at [email protected].