Healthy Community Collaborative members facing the camera and smiling. A group photo.

Healthy Community Collaborative

The Healthy Community Collaborative (HCC) is a stakeholder group of community partners who have been working together since 2011 to implement strategies identified in the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) for El Paso County. The HCC consists of over 60 representatives from city and county governments, hospitals, community health systems, non-profit organizations, schools, and interested citizens.

Our Vision

The vision of the HCC is to increase life expectancy for all in El Paso County by removing barriers that prevent people from achieving optimal health. The HCC will achieve this vision by building an integrated system of community partnerships that puts practices into place that provide residents the opportunity to have better health outcomes.

Priority Areas

  • Barriers to accessing health care
  • Suicide
  • Drug overdose
  • Housing

The HCC and El Paso County Public Health (EPCPH) will monitor its collective progress in these priority areas through the EPCPH dashboard, which can be found here.

Healthy Community Collaborative Video
Four images of various HCC meetings showing individuals who are engaged in the meeting.

Get Involved

For more information on the Healthy Community Collaborative or to get involved, please contact:

Rubba Ahram
Senior Public Health Planner
rubbaahram@elpasoco.com

History of HCC

Between 2012 and 2017, the HCC worked together to implement activities and proven strategies within partner agencies to address healthy eating and active living to improve the health of the people of El Paso County. Efforts included activities to increase healthy food options for both adults and children in settings such as schools, worksites, and neighborhoods; to increase opportunities for physical activity, and to promote other behaviors and policies that reduce the risk for obesity.

In 2017, the HCC updated its priorities and renewed its goal statement after reviewing the health, socioeconomic, demographic, and health equity data presented during the Community Health Assessment process.

The Healthy Community Collaborative set two key goals for 2018-2022 to support the Community Health Improvement Plan, which were to 1) reverse the upward trend of obesity across the lifespan by addressing its root causes, and 2) decrease the incidence of poor mental health and substance use and misuse. The HCC monitored its collective progress in those goal areas.

Between 2021 – 2023, the HCC initiated the process for the new CHA, gathering assessments, collecting data to analyze, prioritizing issues that impact the community, setting goals and priorities, and action planning. During this time, the HCC analyzed the needs of the community and identified the leading public health issues to prioritize.