A Three County Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) in Southern New Jersey: Leveraging Partnerships and Sharing Findings with Community
- Jonathan H. Westover, PhD
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
Research Advances Section
Received March 26, 2025; Accepted for publication July 8, 2025; Published Early Access July 11, 2025
Title: A Three County Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) in Southern New Jersey: Leveraging Partnerships and Sharing Findings with Community
Authors: Devon Ziminski, Carla Villacis, Madeliene Alger, and Amanda Ekelburg, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Abstract: Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)’s characterize community members’ views on the health needs in their communities. This research focused on a three-county CHNA region in Southern New Jersey, outlining the process, methods, findings, and dissemination plan for the CHNA. We used a mixed-methods iterative strategy of data collection and analysis that combined existing publicly available-data with primary data collected from a survey with community members, focus groups with community members, and interviews with key regional health stakeholders. The largest asset in the region is depth and breadth of partnerships between institutions. Programs and partnerships across the region are geared towards preventive care, and also aim to address the social determinants of health (e.g., vaccines, food access). Across the region, barriers underscored the rising cost of living and affordability of basic needs. Cost of healthcare, as well as healthcare access issues, also arose as the barriers most noted in the data. Data spoke to a need for generating community connections and gathering in safe, and well-resourced community spaces for learning, health care, and socialization. The prevalence of chronic illness across the region also undergirds the need for preventive and follow-up care across physical and mental health conditions. Community reported solutions and recommendations across the region focused on creating new infrastructures or shifting current infrastructure towards innovative healthcare models that work for the counties, embedding more direct services and programming directly within the community, focusing on whole-person and individualized care, advocacy for the region, and continuing and maintaining partnerships. The article also discusses our dissemination strategy and offers suggestions for how other CHNAs can employ similar methods.
Keywords: Community Health Needs Assessment, Community Voice, Mixed Methods, Dissemination
Suggested Citation:
Ziminski, D., Villacis, C., Alger, M., and Ekelburg, A. (2025). A Three County Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) in Southern New Jersey: Leveraging Partnerships and Sharing Findings with Community. Transformative Social Impact: A Journal of Community-Based Teaching and Research, 1(2). doi.org/10.70175/socialimpactjournal.2025.1.2.1
