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Our Mission Is To Bring Communities Together To End Health Disparities.

Our Values

People

Rooted in the inherent dignity and worth of each person, we foster connections and relationships with all our neighbors.

Change

The collective wisdom and lived experience of our community guides the positive changes we pursue and achieve.

Impact

Our responsibility is to our community, and we commit to follow through on our promises to have a meaningful and positive impact.

Learn

We humbly take responsibility for the impact of our actions and words, and are always learning how to do our work better.

HCC’s History

  • 1996

    Milestone 1

    The Healthy Community Collaborative (formerly the Healthy Community Council) was established by stakeholders representing community agencies, universities, and nonprofit organizations in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Virginia. The goal of the early HCC was to conduct community needs assessments in Harrisonburg City and Rockingham County.

  • 2022

    Milestone 2

    The HCC engaged in and completed a Strategic Planning Process to help determine the new direction, goals, and mission of the coalition.

Our Recent Accomplishments

The HCC is regularly working towards the coalition’s mission of ending health disparities in our community.

  • Completed Strategic Planning Process

    Beginning in Summer of 2021, the HCC partnered with the OMNI Institute to undergo a strategic planning process. During this process, the HCC held listening sessions with coalition members, staff of partnering organizations, and other community members. From this process, the HCC developed a new identity including a revised mission and values, new goals, and new name: the Healthy Community Collaborative.

  • Provided Free Learning Opportunities For Members

    From July to December of 2022, HCC offered 3 learning opportunities for HCC members on the topics of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

  • Hired A Paid Staff Member

    In September of 2022, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Community Services Board’s Behavioral Health Wellness Program received American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to expand their program and initiatives. The HCC and HRCSB collaborated to create a new position using these funds. The duties of this new position specifically support the work of the HCC. This position was successfully filled in February of 2023.

  • HCC Hosts First In-Person Coalition Meeting as "Healthy Community Collaborative"

    On June 27, 2023, HCC hosted its first in-person coalition meeting since pre-COVID, reintroducing the coalition as Healthy Community Collaborative.

  • Identified Health Disparities

    During HCC’s Coalition Meeting in September 2023, attendees shared the health disparities that they have are aware of or have experienced in the Harrisonburg-Rockingham community and participants selected the disparities that they felt most passionate about focusing on.

    The disparities most-selected by the coalition were then grouped into 3 different categories:

    Stigma/Prejudice | Barriers to Accessing Resources and Services | Health Literacy and Resource Navigation

  • Identified and Chose Disparity Related Project Ideas

    In January 2024’s Coalition Meeting, attendees reviewed the 3 categories of health disparities developed from the previous coalition meeting to determine 1) what was already being done 2) what was missing 3) what could be done and 4) what is not yet known.

    Using the information gathered in January 2024’s Coalition Meeting, HCC’s Steering Committee met to determine what general project ideas would be most relevant and feasible for HCC to focus on. Those meetings yielded 6 ideas:

    A march to increase awareness about topic/issue area | A media-art event/campaign related to a group/experience that is often stigmatized | Training for providers/community organizations on stigma and cultural humility | Community connection events | Increasing available interpretation and/or translation services | Life skills and health education workshops

    In HCC’s April 2024 Coalition Meeting, members drafted ideas and details for each of the 6 general project ideas and presented these draft-projects for the coalition. The coalition then voted on which of these projects HCC would prioritize based on what members thought 1) Is Most Important 2) What HCC should focus on First and 3) What projects would members be willing to assist with.

    From these votes and further discussion, HCC determined that its first project would be related to Life Skills and Health Education Workshops

  • Workshop Project Team Was Created

    In August of 2024, HCC members volunteered to be a part a group dedicated to stewarding HCC’s project(s) related to Life Skills and Health Education Workshops and met together for the first time.

    This group is called the “Workshop Project Team”.

What Are We Working On?

healthy community collaborative
2025

Case Management Networking Series

A common issue faced by many case managers is 1) a lack of clarity around what case management-related services different organizations do and do not provide and 2) lack of interorganizational connections between case managers.

HCC aims to help case managers in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham area increase their knowledge of the variety of services that different organizations and programs offer as well as help to foster face-to-face connections across organizations.

HCC is doing this by hosting a 4-part series of networking events for people in the case management/resource navigation profession where different orgs and programs will make brief presentations on their services, their main points of contact, and end with a Q&A. At the end of the event, there will be time for creating connections and asking additional questions to any of the presenters.

healthy community collaborative
2025

Financial Education

One of the underlying causes of many mental and physical health disparities that people experience today is living life with low-income.

HCC is working on increasing financial education opportunities to people who are living with low-income in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham areas so that they can live a more mentally, physically, and circumstantially prosperous life.

healthy community collaborative
Summer of 2025

Community Health Needs Assessment

In the late spring/early summer of 2025, Sentara and the Virginia Department of Health with have finalized the data collected for the Community Health Needs Assessment and will begin the creation of the Community Health Improvement Plan.

Utilizing the data from the C.H.N.A., and working with our partners across the community, Healthy Community Collaborative will look at opportunities to address the most pressing health-disparities in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham communities.

Operating Documents

Learn more about how the HCC functions by reading our operating documents.

HCC Strategic Plan

View Strategic Plan

HCC Bylaws

View Bylaws

healthy community collaborative

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