Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)

Greater Lowell Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)

2023 Community Health Improvement Plan 

The CHIP is a community-driven initiative, bringing together community members, leaders, agencies, and businesses to help create objectives and develop strategies. In collaboration with Tufts Medicine Lowell General Hospital, we hosted listening sessions to engage our community partners, and set our course for the future. Over several months we held 28 listening sessions and spoke to more than 200 people, producing specific data reports from each of our eight communities and encompassing those populations often marginalized or at risk, including LGBTQ+, seniors, and refugees & immigrants.

A Community-Driven Process

With a goal to create a long-term strategy to strengthen the area’s health systems, our 2023 CHIP will be used as road map for health improvement over a three-year period, guiding the investment of resources of organizations with a stake in improving health for the residents of Lowell and the surrounding communities. Our CHIP mission: to turn data into action and working initiatives to address our community’s top health priorities. While addressing specific health priorities, the overarching goal is always one of health equity, meeting the health needs not just for some, but for all.

Identifying a New Need

Through this process, our community identified a new area of focus: Service Navigation, which encompasses access, digital equity, care quality, and experiences, and the mutual safety of patients and providers. This area will be incorporated into the GLHA’s six health focused task forces—Health Equity, Wellness & Chronic Disease, Maternal Child Health, Behavioral Health, Housing & the Built Environment, Substance Use and Prevention –which have adopted the CHIP as the driving force behind their efforts, setting goals and objectives to target areas of need identified in the CHIP process.

Access the 2023 Community Health Improvement Plan 

Turning Data into Action

The CHIP plans will turn into action through two key routes: GLHA task forces and GLHA grant funding. As our task forces and community partners create action plans to address needs identified in the CHIP, we will be reporting back to the community on their goals, objectives, and progress in each focus area.