A Roadmap for Health in All Policies

What happens when all the government agencies in a town, county, or state work together to build healthier communities?

They create jobs, make sure that families can afford healthy food, and build parks where all kids can play. And ultimately, they build communities where all people feel healthy, empowered, and connected to the place they call home.

It’s impossible to make this vision a reality unless everyone works together. Behind the scenes, government agencies must collaborate. Yet many communities struggle with this approach — and for good reason: It’s hard. We live and work amid bureaucratic structures, history, and practices that keep us isolated, operating in our separate silos — libraries over here, sheriff’s office over there, and public health department way over there. We speak different technical jargon. We’re accountable  for different outcomes — even when we share the same boss!

To solve these problems, many state and local governments are turning to Health in All Policies (HiAP). HiAP is a transformative, collaborative approach to improving communities by incorporating health, sustainability, and equity considerations into decision making across government agencies and policy areas. When communities are healthier, they have lower health care costs, create jobs, increase tax revenue, and improve health equity.

But how do these jurisdictions actually do it? How do governments commit to, develop, and sustain a HiAP approach?

ChangeLab Solutions developed A Roadmap for Health in All Policies to help answer these questions. This resource provides strategies for collaboration, challenges to consider, and concrete guidance and inspiration from real people who have done this hard and important work. Because HiAP is fundamentally about good governance, this roadmap focuses on using policy to build and institutionalize the public sector’s ability to collaborate across government departments, agencies, and offices. No matter where your community is in the HiAP process, this roadmap will get you where you need to go.

A Roadmap for Health in All Policies is part of our growing library of HiAP materials. These resources explain the ins and outs of HiAP, including steps and strategies from concept all the way to implementation. It also provides model policies that you can customize to meet your community’s needs. Together, these resources will help you create a healthier, more equitable future for your community.