Conducting and producing a meaningful Community Health Assessment (CHA) is an important and essential public health service and a mandatory biennial activity for New York State's (NYS) Local Health Departments. The Assessment Initiative project has allowed the NYS Department of Health to better understand and identify strategies to strengthen CHAs and to develop training, education, and technical assistance programs. The Assessment Initiative project has benefited from participation, coordination, and sharing of resources and expertise with other community health improvement initiatives in NYS, including those that emphasize collaborative approaches to health improvement, workforce development, and expanding access to data.

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In the practice of public health today, a greater emphasis is being placed upon working collaboratively with many community partners. This creates more opportunities to measurably improve community health. The benefits and challenges of establishing constituencies to promote health in the capital region of New York State are presented in this article.