Making a Community Health Needs Assessment Participatory: A Case Study from an Alaska Native Health Care Organization

Community health needs assessments (CHNAs) often lack sufficient community member participation. This lack of participation contributes to a continuation of unmet needs and systematic inequities. Southcentral Foundation (SCF) is an Alaska Native-owned, nonprofit healthcare organization serving 70,000 Alaska Native and American Indian (AN/AI) people living in and around Anchorage and 55 rural villages. Results of a 1993 CHNA shaped the organizational mission, vision, organizational principles, objectives, and initiatives as SCF assumed care from the Indian Health Service. We describe methods used by SCF to maximize participation of diverse community members in a second large-scale CHNA in 2018, how results align with existing organizational values and priorities, and how results were disseminated. We discuss the benefits of periodic CHNAs and ongoing community engagement.