[Tool Kit] Tribal and Territorial Health Department Guide to Assessing Public Health Capacity: A Collaborative Approach
(July 2023)
Community wellness is a deep cultural value and is central to Tribal and Territorial Health Departments’ (THD) mission. Recent threats from a global pandemic and the climate crisis highlight the importance of THD leadership and capacity to respond to protect the community’s health.
The THD Guide to Assessing Public Health Capacity: A Collaborative Approach is a tool for understanding a THD’s systems, processes, and policies in order to build capacity and improve health. It was developed based on Red Star’s experience working with numerous THDs nationwide. It provides the essential steps to engage staff and partners to assess performance, and can be customized to meet departmental goals, including public health accreditation.
This capacity assessment guide is a companion to Red Star’s Tribal and Territorial Health Department Public Health Capacity Assessment Workbook 2023. The workbook is an Excel-based tool to record capacity scores based on the Public Health Accreditation Board standards and measures. Once the assessment is completed, the workbook automatically creates a visual snapshot of a THD’s current capacity strengths and gaps.