MEDIA RELEASE

Coordination of community health efforts across sectors are receiving a boost as Kaiser Permanente Hawaii presented a $50,000 grant to help launch the new Hawaii Public Health Institute (HIPHI).

With the HIPHI’s launch, Hawaii becomes the 28th state in the U.S. to have a public health institute. Public health institutes are nonprofit organizations that improve the public’s health by fostering innovation, leveraging resources, and building partnerships across sectors, including government agencies, communities, the health care delivery system, media, and academia.

Nationally, Kaiser Permanente has supported public health institutes to coordinate public health. Kaiser’s grant to HIPHI will help the organization fulfill its mission to improve health and quality of life in Hawaii by providing issue-based advocacy, health promotion and education, and technical assistance and other capacity building services.

“Our new public health institute builds on the success of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, which now continues as a program of HIPHI,” said Jessica Yamauchi, HIPHI’s Executive Director. “With support from Kaiser Permanente, HIPHI will be able to continue the Coalition’s collaborative approach to addressing community health.”

HIPHI has been developed in close partnership with the state Department of Health (DOH), the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Office of Public Health Studies, and the National Network of Public Health Institutes with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

HIPHI is currently helping DOH to assess requirements for the DOH to attain accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board.

“We think HIPHI’s collaborative approach to community health, bringing together partners from multiple sectors, is critical for ensuring that our communities thrive,” said Joy Barua, Director of Community Benefit and Health Policy at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii and HIPHI board member. “In that spirit, we hope that Kaiser Permanente’s support for HIPHI will help bring other partners to the table.”

— Find out more:
www.kp.org
www.hiphi.org