Dots Pattern
Contact

How FPHS Funding is Modernizing Public Engagement

The wraparound support of FPHS funding for communications and community engagement help the Board improve its efforts to reach those impacted by Board decisions and recommendations. This year, FPHS funding enabled the Board to produce video notices in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language for newborn screening TAC meetings and the hearing screening and school environmental health and safety rulemaking projects.

1 min read

The wraparound support of FPHS funding for communications and community engagement help the Board improve its efforts to reach those impacted by Board decisions and recommendations. This year, FPHS funding enabled the Board to produce video notices in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language for newborn screening TAC meetings and the hearing screening and school environmental health and safety rulemaking projects. Previously, updates were shared only through written English emails and website posts, formats that are not always accessible.

The wraparound support of FPHS funding for communications and community engagement help the Board improve its efforts to reach those impacted by Board decisions and recommendations.

FPHS Stories

Related Stories

FPHS exists everywhere in Washington in order to serve everyone in Washington. Check out some of these other FPHS stories to learn about some of the other places or paths for FPHS delivery.

View all
Clearing the Air: A Case Study in Rapid, Multi-Channel Emergency Communications

When the Lineage Logistics cold storage facility in Finley, Washington, caught fire on April 21, 2024, it ignited more than just flames. Over the next eight weeks, the 525,000 squarefoot warehouse smoldered, blanketing the surrounding rural community in heavy smoke and uncertainty. For residents, questions piled up quickly: Was the air safe to breathe? What was in the water? Who was going to help? At the center of those answers was the Communications team at Benton-Franklin Health District (BFHD). As firefighters battled the blaze, the BFHD Communications team stepped in to battle misinformation, build trust, and ensure the community had access to accurate, timely, and life-protecting information.

Read Story
How FPHS & Tufts are Reducing Childhood Trauma in Spokane County

Supported by FPHS funds, we partnered with Tufts Medical Center to provide training to twenty Spokane County organizations to become Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences (HOPE) facilitators. Through the training, the community-based and government city agencies can craft policies and ordinances that promote a healthier and positive environment, reducing adverse childhood trauma and experiences. The training has already led to more community engagement and family-centered events to bring a healthy community together.

Read Story
Mason Matters: Creating a Lasting Engine for Rural Health Empowerment

With consistent support from FPHS funding, Mason Matters is evolving into more than just a convening space; it has become an engine of local empowerment and innovation. The forum launched working groups to tackle specific issues, such as rural access to care and workforce development, and hosted public listening sessions to ground its efforts in lived experiences.

Read Story
How FPHS Investment Transformed Community Health in Garfield County

Having a Community Health Assessment (CHA) allowed the department to evaluate health equity, identify critical service gaps, and understand the nuanced barriers that impact rural well-being—from healthcare access and behavioral health to food security, transportation, and childcare. These insights have served as the foundation for every subsequent decision, program, and partnership GCPH has launched.

Read Story
How FPHS Resources Scaled the 2024 HPAI Outbreak Response

In 2024, the Washington State Public Health Lab provided significant testing support for a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza event. Many of the staff supporting this outbreak response were funded by FPHS funds. Without the FPHS funding our response would have been less robust. We would have needed to limit throughput and likely reduce operating hours.

Read Story
Enhancing Equitable Disaster Readiness in Spokane County

People who move to eastern Washington are often unaware of the unique set of environmental hazards, extreme weather events, and potential disasters that may occur in the region. Some newcomers to the area primarily speak and read languages other than English. To serve the whole community’s emergency preparedness needs, public health agencies provide accessible information that helps residents prepare for local threats and hazards. Importantly, FPHS funds supported (or in coordination with local nonprofit organizations, SRHD leveraged FPHS funds to support) the translation and targeted dissemination of plain-language public health emergency preparedness materials covering extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and general household preparedness topics to disproportionately impacted communities in Spokane County.

Read Story