Enhancing service delivery through title x funding: findings from California.

Context: The federal Title X grant program provides funding for family planning services for low-income women and men. In California, all clinics receiving Title X funds participate in the state's family planning program, Family PACT, along with other public and private providers. The relative extent to which Title X-funded clinics and other Family PACT providers have incorporated enhancements beyond their core medical services has never been studied.

Effective community health assessments in King County, Washington.

Background: Community health assessment (CHA) is widely practiced in public health, but its effectiveness has seldom been evaluated.

Method: We present three examples of successful CHAs, carried out by Public Health-Seattle & King County, with diverse strategies: a quantitative assessment of asthma hospitalizations; Communities Count, a set of social and health indicators paired with qualitative data; and Growing Up Healthy, an assessment using qualitative methods to provide guidance for a statewide media campaign on youth sexual abstinence.

Findings: These assessments were successful in attracting new resources, forming and sustaining new partnerships, and/or providing guidance or resources for program and policy development.

From neurons to King County neighborhoods: partnering to promote policies based on the science of early childhood development.

A diverse community partnership in the Seattle area developed a policy agenda based on science, organized community support, and committed to monitor policy changes. It found that public health agencies are well positioned to develop a common knowledge base on early childhood development and to initiate community coalitions promoting policies to strengthen environments. It was challenging to maintain participants' focus on environments over time.