Health Promotion Council’s Slice of Innovativeness in the Public Health Landscape

Abstract

Introduction

The Health Promotion Council (HPC) offers innovative strategies in delivering high-quality health promotion and prevention programs for low-income diverse communities, with a solid business underpinning. To fully understand HPC’s unique blend of public health services and its bottom line approach, it’s important to first understand the internal landscape in which it operates.

HPC’s longstanding mission since 1981 has been “to promote health and prevent and manage chronic diseases, especially among vulnerable populations through community-based outreach, education, and advocacy.” HPC fully understands its role within public health. Not research, surveillance or primary clinical care, but rather community-based initiatives with a focus on addressing health disparities and inequities, are what HPC does best. Reaching more than 40,000 people annually across Pennsylvania, HPC strategically fulfills its mission through partnerships and a diverse work force of 46 full-time employees: 26 percent African American, 19 percent Latino Hispanic, 10 percent Asian and 26 percent Caucasian. HPC’s leadership represents 50 percent diversity, allowing them to remain competitive in today’s changing demographics.

In comparison to similar nonprofits, which tend to use a more tapered approach to public health through research, primary care, or awareness, HPC uses a comprehensive approach including direct health services, policy, and environmental system change interventions. It also advances cultural perceptiveness for communities, often serving as the broker between clinical and community services. This multilevel broad strategy is what keeps HPC in the forefront as a community-based nonprofit leader and strong strategic partner. Its combined use of public health and business constructs with evidence-based models makes HPC a unique player in the public health sector. But is HPC’s focus on the value of diversity and use of a multifaceted approach sufficient to manage the complexities of balancing mission and money as an innovative growth strategy?