Mississippi

The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) sponsored an EBPH course, led by faculty from the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis (PRC-StL), for state leaders in July 2010. In April 2011, the course was expanded to local public health districts. At a pre-course workshop, the Southwest District health officer explained the importance of evidence-based community interventions and the role of the health department in community assessment, interventions, and policy. The course itself was taught to 26 local practitioners by instructors from MSDH and PRC-StL. In May 2011, MSDH repeated the course, taught entirely by MSDH staff, in McComb, Mississippi. MSDH included the EBPH model in grant applications to the Coordinated Chronic Disease Program and the Community Transformation Grants program, both initiated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MSDH offered $15,000 to $26,000 mini-grants to support the development of evidence-based action planning in such areas as physical activity, joint-use agreements, smoke-free municipalities, and healthy corner stores.

Colorado

Since May 2011, the Prevention Services Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has conducted a pilot project to collaboratively build capacity in EBPH. The 7-step EBPH training approach (3) served as a guide. Epidemiologists and evaluators created practical tools and mini-trainings. One volunteer team focuses on increasing physical activity at the population level while another works to increase screening and referral for pregnancy-related depression during the next 5 years. Both teams completed a community assessment, quantified their health issue, wrote a concise issue statement, rated the evidence on strategies, and prioritized the strategies (steps 1–5). The first team expanded to address obesity prevention and prioritized strategies in April 2012. Division leadership will convene implementation teams to plan and execute the action and evaluation plans for the top-ranked strategies. The team addressing pregnancy-related depression created a logic model using priority strategies, which then informed their state action plan (step 6) that includes SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) objectives and process measures (step 7). At the end of the project in January 2012, this team updated their issue statement and had a portfolio of key documents, tools, and a literature library, intended to sustain capacity in EBPH. This team is implementing the action plan and will semiannually assess the need to repeat any EBPH step.