PACE EH: Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health

1. PACE EH: Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health

2. What is PACE EH? PACE EH is a process for assessing and analyzing the environmental health of communities and for creating plans to address threats and create improvements.

3. PACE EH is constructed around13 tasks: Task 1: Determine Community Capacity to Undertake the Assessment Task 2: Define and Characterize the Community Task 3: Assemble Community Environmental Health Assessment Team Task 4: Define the Goals of the Assessment Task 5: Generate the Environmental Health Issue List Task 6: Analyze Issues with a Systems Framework

4. PACE EH is constructed around13 tasks: Task 7: Develop Appropriate Community Environmental Health Indicators Task 8: Select Standards Task 9: Create Environmental Health Issue Profiles Task 10: Rank the Environmental Health Issues Task 11: Set Priorities for Action Task 12: Develop an Action Plan Task 13: Evaluate Progress and Plan for the Future

5. Why use PACE EH? • PACE EH is a participatory process. • The process brings together numerous people and organizations from various sectors, many of whom may not normally have contact. • PACE EH takes a community perspective on health. • PACE EH is flexible. • The process helps empower communities to identify and use their own resources. • PACE EH looks at the environment in an inclusive way.

6. Why use PACE EH? • PACE EH raises the profile of the environment as the foundation and context of community health. • Through the CEHA team and associated work groups,PACE EH builds leadership and connections for other initiatives and issues, health-related or not. • The process is structured to keep all participants focused on the community and its concerns, rather than their own. • PACE EH examines environmental issues in a systems framework. • Because of its structure, the PACE EH process is likely to have a real impact on community health.

7. Who should be involved in using PACE EH? • People affected by environmental health issues, including: • Vulnerable populations • People with environmentally-influenced health conditions • Workers in dangerous or unhealthy jobs • People indirectly affected by environmental health issues, including: • Landlords who might be responsible for removing environmental hazards • Business owners who may have to change their use ofproducts or methods

8. Individuals and organizations that provide services to affected populations, such as: • Health professionals and institutions • Human service organizations • Educators and schools • Public services – police, fire, EMS • Government • Federal/state/local environmental agencies and officials • Public health agencies – state/federal/county DPH, localboards of health

9. Advocacy and community groups • Environmental organizations • Community activists • Faith communities • Others with a vested interest, such as: • Business and industry • Labor • People with relevant expertise – scientists, researchers, • professionals, etc.

10. When should you use PACE EH? • When the community is experiencing rapid growth. • When a new commercial or residential development is being proposed. • When a new industry is moving in. • When changes are proposed that will affect the natural environment. • When there’s an upsurge in what might be environmentally-caused illness, or when community health seems to be deteriorating.

11. How do you use PACE EH? • Choose a convener, whether a public health agency or official or some other trusted entity. • Deal with longstanding mistrust, turf issues, and factionalism. • Carry out the 13 tasks that make up the process.

12. Task 1: Determine community capacity to undertake the • assessment. • Specify the resources, skills, and capacities needed for the • assessment. • Specify the available resources, skills, and capacities. • Review possibilities for collaboration. • Determine ability to carry out the assessment.

13. Task 2: Define and characterize the community. • Define the community. • Describe the community’s characteristics, composition, • organization and leadership. • Refine the definition of the community as needed.

14. Task 3: Assemble a Community-based Environmental • Health Assessment Team. • Clarify expectations of team members. • Identify and invite individuals to help design and carry out the • assessment. • Determine a governing structure, decision-making structure, and • ground rules.

15. Task 4: Define the goals, objectives, and scope of the • assessment. • Establish goals and objectives for the assessment • Describe the vision that will guide the process. • Describe the scope of issues to be addressed by the assessment. • Define key terms.

16. Task 5: Generate a list of environmental health issues. • Evaluate and select data-gathering method(s). • Collect data on community concerns. • Collect data on community knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and • perceptions. • Create a manageable list of issues.

17. Task 6: Analyze the Issues with a Systems • Framework. • Understand the framework. • Identify the connections among health status, affected • populations, exposure factors, environmental • agents/conditions, contributing factors and behaviors, and • public health protection factors for selected environmental • health issues.

18. Task 7: Develop Locally Appropriate Indicators. • Develop a list of potential indicators. • Identify key indicators based on selected criteria. • Task 8: Select Standards Against Which Local Status • Can be Compared. • Identify externally driven standards. • Agree upon locally appropriate standards.

19. Task 9: Create Issue Profiles. • Adopt a standardized format for organizing information. • Gather information. • Collect data for locally developed indicators. • Develop a summary statement.

20. Task 10: Rank issues. • Determine the purpose of ranking. • Decide on ranking criteria. • Select a method for ranking. • Rank the issues.

21. Task 11: Set priorities for action. • Determine local priority-setting criteria. • Select a method for prioritizing. • Determine priorities.

22. Task 12: Develop an action plan. • Develop goals and objectives. • Identify contributing factors. • Identify possible interventions and prevention activities. • Identify community assets. • Identify potential barriers. • Select an intervention(s)/activity(ies).

23. Determine resource needs. • Identify potential partners. • Provide training. • Develop timeframe. • Determine measures of success.

24. Task 13: Evaluate progress and plan for the future. • Agree on the questions to be answered by the evaluation. • Evaluate the success of the assessment process. • Begin preparations for ongoing community-based • environmental health assessment activities.

25. In Summary PACE EH provides a structure for assessing a community’s environmental health and identifying current or emerging issues in that area. PACE EH also sets the stage for regular assessments, so that environmental health remains in the community’s consciousness, and doesn’t have to be approached as if it’s new every time there’s an environmental health issue to address.