The National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), in partnership with Prevention Institute, was awarded a five-year cooperative agreement by the Office of Minority Health (HHS) to further develop and disseminate PI's Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments, or THRIVE. By building on the original tool, NNPHI and PI will augment the capacity of local PHIs to address social determinants of health.
THRIVE helps communities bolster factors that will improve health outcomes and reduce inequities experienced by racial and ethnic minorities. It provides a framework by which community members, coalitions, public health practitioners, and local decision-makers can identify factors associated with poor health outcomes, engage relevant stakeholders, and take action to remedy the inequities in health and safety.
From 2002 - 2004, THRIVE was developed and pilot tested in New York City (East Harlem, South Bronx, and Central Brooklyn), Del Paso Heights (Suburban Sacramento, CA), and in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. These sites reported strong value in using the framework to emphasize resilience, increase participation by community residents, and help communicate health impacts to multiple sectors. The process and outcomes were documented in The American Journal of Public Health (Dec. 2005; Vol. 95, No. 12).
Under this new cooperative agreement, NNPHI and PI will update the research from the original tool, develop a training manual, train a minimum of 80 trainers at Public Health Institutes, and enable 16 sites to integrate THRIVE into their approaches to address the social determinants of health and reduce inequities. During the first quarter of funding, the partnership has started the process of convening an advisory group and also updating the tool's research base.
