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.
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. Through intentional investment and community collaboration, Mason County positioned itself to build lasting infrastructure for health equity. Mason Matters demonstrated that improving health outcomes starts by bringing people together—centering equity, building trust, and fostering sustainable change.
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.
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.
Thanks to FPHS Immunization Outreach and FPHS Reinforcing Capacity funds, Spokane’s Immunization Assessment & Promotion (IAP) team was able to implement two successful vaccine campaigns, create community-specific resources, provide educational opportunities for vaccine advocates, develop and maintain partnerships, and provide access to vaccines for uninsured adults.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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