Weld County CHA and CHIP

Photo of two buttes in the Pawnee Grasslands.

Every three years, the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment conducts its Community Health Assessment (CHA), which includes its Community Health Survey.

Air balloons being released near a pond.

The CHA…

Provides a foundation to improve the health of a population
Tells the community story
Identifies disparities among different populations and the factors that contribute to them
Supports the community’s efforts to achieve health equity

Using findings from the CHA, state/national priorities, local capacity, as well as input from partner organizations in Thriving Weld, a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) is developed. The CHIP sets the priority areas of concern for organizations and coalitions of Weld County to address, and the strategies to do so.

2026 CHIP Prioritization Process

On April 28, 2026, multi-sectoral partners narrowed the number of health issues from ten to 5. On May 28, 2026, community partners gathered for the Thriving Weld Quarterly Meeting and further narrowed issues to the top three: Healthcare Access, Mental Health, and Chronic Diseases.

CHIP Prioritization visual showing a flow chart of the process on deciding the final health issues. The original Top Identified Health Issues were Communicable Diseases, Social Connection, Mental Health, Substance Use, Healthcare Access, Maternal and Childhood Health, Chronic Diseases, Environmental Health, and Unintentional Injury and Violence. An arrow guides to the Round 1 Prioritization: Top 5 Health Issues, which are Social Connection, Mental Health, Substance Use, Healthcare Access, and Chronic Diseases. An arrow then guides to Round 2 Prioritization: Top 3 Health Issues, which are Healthcare Access, Mental Health, and Chronic Diseases.

Prioritization Process Data

After the first prioritization meeting, issues were scored to identify the top 5 priority health concerns for further investigation and discussion.

A bar chart with the title average Score by Health Issue for the first prioritization meeting. The scores are scaled from a 0 to 4, with 4 indicating a higher importance or relevance. The scores in order from biggest to smallest are 3.55 for Healthcare Access, 3.48 for Mental Health, 3.42 for Chronic Diseases, 3.31 for Social Connection, 3.19 for Substance Use, 2.85 for Maternal and Childhood Health, 2.66 for Environmental Health, 2.56 for Unintentional Injury and Violence, and 2.45 for Communicable Disease.

The second round of prioritization focused on narrowing the number of issues to 1-3 key health concerns to serve as the focus of the 2026-2028 CHIP

A bar chart with the title average Score by Health Issue and Criteria - Top 5. The data is for the second prioritization meeting and includes average score of each of the five criteria: Size, Seriousness, Impact, Ability, and Relevance. This data is shown in order of average score for each of the final five health issues: Healthcare Access, Mental Health, Chronic Diseases, Substance Use, and Social Connection. The scores are scaled from a 0 to 4, with 4 indicating a higher importance or relevance. For Healthcare Access the scores are 3.84 for size, 3.80 for seriousness, 3.64 for impact, 2.84 for ability, and 3.73 for relevance/. For Mental Health the scores are 3.69 for size, 3.78 for seriousness, 3.33 for impact, 3.18 for ability, and 3.53 for relevance. For Chronic Diseases the scores are 3.55 for size, 3.61 for seriousness, 3.16 for impact, 3.02 for ability, and 3.38 for relevance. For Substance Use the scores 3.26 for size, 3.46 for seriousness, 3.08 for impact, 2.94 for ability, and 3.29 for relevance. For Social Connection the scores are 3.42 for size, 3.33 for seriousness, 2.92 for impact, 2.84 for ability, and 3.04 for relevance.

Next Steps

Healthcare Access, Mental Health, and Chronic Diseases will be the focus of the 2026-2028 Weld County CHIP. We need your help as we initiate next steps. This includes forming a Healthcare Access workgroup and developing action plans for each of the three priority areas. Mental Health will remain under the existing Healthy Mind and Spirit workgroup. The previous Healthy Eating and Active Living workgroups will be combined to address chronic diseases.

Initial action planning meetings will begin in July. These meetings will be hybrid and will take place on the following dates.

Chronic Diseases Workgroup – Thursday July 16th, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Healthy Mind and Spirit Workgroup – Friday July 17th, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Healthcare Access Workgroup – TBA

If you are interested in joining a workgroup, or are looking for more information, please contact Emily Pickens (epickens@weld.gov) or Cody Speece (cspeece@weld.gov). Additional July meeting information (Zoom info, location) will be provided after emailing Emily or Cody.