Essentia Health Collaborates with Local Organizations to Identify Community Health Needs and Promote Improvements
Essentia Health’s mission is to make a healthy difference in people’s lives, and that work extends beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinics.
Just like patients, each community has unique needs. To determine priorities, Essentia conducts a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every three years in each community that is home to one of its 14 hospitals. Town hall meetings, focus groups and surveys are among the ways Essentia collects information on what is important to people and what gaps we can help to address.
Fargo is one of the 14 communities surveyed by Essentia.
Our most recent CHNA identified the following needs for the Essentia Health-Fargo service area:
Social drivers of health: Essentia plans to operate a Community Health Worker Program, administer a community resource directory called “Resourceful” and support organizations through a Community Grants program.
Nutrition and physical activity: Essentia plans to educate community members about nutrition and gardening, as well as incentivize the consumption of local produce through the support of local farmer’s markets and community gardens. Additionally, Essentia plans to support swimming and water safety skills programs for youth and adults by partnering with the YMCA of the Northern Sky.
Housing: Essentia plans to address housing in the Fargo-Moorhead area by partnering with the High Plains Fair Housing Center and Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota to prevent homelessness of tenants facing eviction.
“The Driving to Success program continues to be a powerful bridge for New Americans navigating life in a new country,” said Fowzia Adde, executive director of the Immigrant Development Center. “By focusing on behind-the-wheel instruction tailored to their needs, we’ve helped individuals gain confidence, independence, and access to greater opportunities. Seeing our participants — especially so many women — pass their driving tests and take this important step toward self-sufficiency has been incredibly rewarding. We are proud of the progress made and remain committed to expanding this work to serve even more in our community."
The key to gathering accurate data is to get input from a wide range of community members, particularly those who are medically underserved and those in minority groups. The information helps health systems decide how to make the greatest impact and which areas to focus on.
For example, after our last CHNA in 2022, we focused on the following priority areas for this service area:
Health equity: Essentia Health promoted health equity in the Fargo service area through various community partnerships focused on supporting New American youth, adults and families. It collaborated with organizations to foster social and academic development for youth, supported workforce development for adults and helped low-income individuals access driver’s education. Additionally, Essentia worked with community partners to increase childcare availability and hosted a program to enhance diversity and inclusion efforts among local leaders.
Mental health: Essentia Health partnered with Clay County Public Health and the Moorhead Alternative Learning Center (ALC) to address mental health by creating a Calming Room and offering staff training. The collaboration introduced the Sources of Strength and #WinAtSocial curricula to promote resilience, prevent negative outcomes and encourage healthy technology use among students and staff. Essentia Health also supported local initiatives like Friends of the Children to improve youth development and partnered with FirstLink to enhance suicide crisis support services across North Dakota and Minnesota.
Resourceful: Resourceful is a publicly available community resource directory, designed to connect individuals with free and reduced-cost services. Since its launch in 2021 more than 4,500 programs have been added to the resource directory and over 32,000 individuals have used the directory. Resourceful has facilitated more than 25,000 referrals to community-based organizations.
"At Essentia, our commitment to the communities we serve is at the heart of everything we do,” said Emily Kuenstler, Essentia’s community health director. “We believe that true health care extends far beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinics — it's about partnering with local organizations, listening to diverse voices and addressing the unique needs that impact well-being every day. By conducting regular Community Health Needs Assessments and investing in programs that promote nutrition, physical activity and access to resources, we're dedicated to making a lasting, positive difference in people's lives."
Community Health Needs Assessments are posted publicly online at EssentiaHealth.org/About/CHNA.