Healthy Durham Committees
Learn about the established committees, opportunities to join, and updates.
Our Current Committees:
Mental Health Committee
Access to Care Committee
Communications Committee
Health and Housing Committee
Learn More About Our Committees and Processes
Each Durham County Community Health Assessment results in the selection of health priorities. The top 5 health priorities chosen in the 2023 Community Health Assessment process were:
1. Affordable Housing
2. Access to Healthcare and Health Insurance
3. Community Safety and Well-Being
4. Mental Health
5. Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Food Access
Based on the results of the 2023 CHA, the Partnership voted to move forward with committees around Access to Care, Communications, Health and Housing, Mental Health and Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Food Access. The Partnership will be structured as pictured below.
Partnership Background and Current Committees
The Partnership for a Healthy Durham is a county-wide partnership of community members, service providers, elected officials, university researchers, and others who come together to rally behind prioritized health issues identified in the community health assessment. Our most recent health assessment, completed in March 2023, identified five priority areas. The Partnership has six committees or action groups addressing these priority areas, which are led by co-chairs. Committee co-chair responsibilities can be found here. Each committee has developed a 3-year action plan, which you can find on each committee’s page.
Committees meet monthly. All meetings are open to the public. See the calendar for a list of upcoming meetings.
Access to Care: Advocates for changes that will affect health care coverage for residents and develops community and agency-based strategies to make measurable improvements in access to medical and dental care for the uninsured and underinsured residents of Durham.
Communications: Charged with improving the internal and external communications and Partnership branding. Working with community partners to enhance an online community resource directory.
Health and Housing: This committee focuses on the relationship between health and housing.
Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Food Access (PANFA): Provides a community-based approach to address the growing problem of overweight and obesity, and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes.
Mental Health: Seeks to increase public awareness of mental illness and access to mental health services.
Community Safety and Wellbeing: (No standing committee; we work with other existing groups and through our health committees). This is a new priority for the Partnership.
Systemic Equity Action Team (SEAT):
Committee Action Plans (2022-2024)
Partnership committees revise action plans every three years based on the results of the Community Health Assessment. The Access to Care, Communications, Mental Health and Obesity, Diabetes and Food Access committees completed final drafts of their action plans.
The action plans were created by committees in 2021 and 2022. Data from the Community Health Assessment and feedback from the community were taken into account when developing the plans. These are living documents. The action plans guide the work of the committees and provide timelines, but can be adjusted at any time.
Updates on Committees:
As of July 1, 2018, HIV/STI will no longer be a committee of the Partnership for a Healthy Durham Structure Proposed 2018-2021 . It will become a workgroup of the Access to Care committee. The Obesity, Diabetes and Food Access committee has also been renamed to Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Food Access.
NCCare360 Task Force
In October 2019, the Partnership voted to adopt an NCCare360 task force to provide local, community-based governance for the first year of utilization of NCCare360 in Durham County. The Task Force will include agency representatives and clients who use NCCare 360. The task force will meet monthly to address any issues or concerns with the platform. This aligns with past and present work of the Communications and other committees of the Partnership.