Massachusetts Public Health Excellence Grant Program
The Office of Local and Regional Health promotes and supports the development of inter-municipal shared service agreements (cross-jurisdictional sharing) that contribute to improvements in local public health capacity. By pooling resources, functions, and expertise, a consortium of cities and towns, especially those that are smaller or less prosperous, can improve compliance with their statutory and regulatory mandates and expand the public health protections and services they offer residents.
OLRH staff offers technical assistance to local public health officials in Massachusetts who are interested in exploring or currently participating in cross-jurisdictional sharing.
The following resources provide helpful information for exploring cross-jurisdictional sharing:
- The Center for Sharing Public Health Services provides access to tools, techniques, expertise and resources that support collaboration and sharing across boundaries. The Center offers a Roadmap to Develop Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing Initiatives and assistance to public health departments to be better able to protect and promote the health of the people they serve.
- The State Action for Public Health Excellence (SAPHE) Program currently enables 79 Massachusetts cities and towns to plan for or to expand cross-jurisdictional sharing to improve local public health effectiveness and efficiency.
- The report of the federally-funded Public Health District Incentive Grant (PHDIG) Program (PDF) | (DOCX) documents the planning, implementation, lessons learned, and sustainability of five pilot, incentive-based local public health districts in Massachusetts from 2011 to 2015.
- The Massachusetts Public Health Regionalization Project site was hosted by the Boston University School of Public Health until September 2020. If you are looking for specific documents, please email the Office of Local and Regional Health at LocalRegionalPublicHealth@mass.gov.
Public health districts and shared services in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health currently funds 41 grantees through the Public Health Excellence for Shared Services program. Listed below are the grantees, which include 268 municipalities (76% of municipalities statewide).
| Lead Municipality | Participating Municipalities |
|---|---|
| Abington | Abington, Avon, Brockton, Stoughton, Whitman |
| Berkshire Regional Planning Commission | Adams, Alford, Becket, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Dalton, Egremont, Florida, Great Barrington, Hancock, Lanesborough, Mount Washington, New Ashford, New Marlborough, North Adams, Peru, Pittsfield, Richmond, Sandisfield, Savoy, Sheffield, Washington, West Stockbridge, Williamstown, and Windsor |
| Central Mass Regional Planning Commission | Blackstone, Douglas, Hopedale, Mendon, Millville, Northbridge, Upton, and Uxbridge |
| Central Mass Regional Planning Commission | Auburn, Brimfield, Dudley, Oxford, Southbridge, and Webster |
| Cohasset | Cohasset, Hingham, Hull |
| Fall River | Fall River, Seekonk, Swansee |
| Fitchburg | Athol, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Hubbardston, Leominster, Phillipston, Princeton, Royalston, Sterling, Templeton, Westminster, Winchendon |
| Foothills Health District | Goshen, Westhampton, Whately, and Williamsburg |
| Foxborough | Easton, Foxborough, Mansfield, Norton, Plainville, and Sharon |
| Franklin Regional Council of Governments | Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Conway, Deerfield, Erving, Gill, Hawley, Heath, Leyden, Monroe, Northfield, Rowe, and Shelburne |
| Halifax | Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, Halifax, Middleborough, Raynham, West Bridgewater |
| Hamilton | Essex, Hamilton, Rockport, and Wenham |
| Hudson | Ashland, Framingham, Hopkinton, Hudson, Maynard, Milford, Millis, and Natick |
| Kingston | Carver, Kingston, Plymouth, Plympton, Wareham |
| Leicester | Barre, Hardwick, Holden, Leicester, New Braintree, and North Brookfield, Brookfield |
| Longmeadow | Hampden, Longmeadow, Monson, and Wilbraham |
| Methuen | Dracut, Lawrence, and Methuen |
| Metropolitan Area Planning Council | Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop |
| Nantucket | Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Gosnold, Nantucket, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, and West Tisbury |
| Nashoba | Ashburnham, Ashby, Ayer, Berlin, Bolton, Boxborough, Dunstable, Groton, Harvard, Lancaster, Littleton, Lunenburg, Pepperell, Shirley, Stow, and Townsend |
| Needham | Dover, Medfield, Needham |
| New Bedford | Acushnet, Fairhaven, New Bedford |
| North Attleborough | Attleborough, Berkley, Dighton, North Attleborough, Rehoboth, Taunton |
| Northampton | Amherst, Belchertown, Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Easthampton, Goshen, Granby, Hadley, Hatfield, Huntington, Middlefield, Northampton, Pelham, Plainfield, Southampton, Ware, and Worthington |
| Northborough | Boylston, Northborough, Southborough, and Westborough |
| Norwood | Canton, Dedham, Milton, Needham, Norwood, Walpole, Wellesley, and Westwood |
| Quabbin Health District | Belchertown, Pelham, and Ware |
| Randolph | Braintree, Holbrook, Quincy, Randolph, Weymouth |
| Salem | Beverly, Danvers, Lynn, Marblehead, Nahant, Peabody, Salem, and Swampscott |
| Somerville | Arlington, Medford, Somerville |
| South Hadley | Chicopee, Holyoke, South Hadley |
| Southwick | Blandford, Granville, Montgomery, Russell, Southwick, Tolland |
| Sudbury | Bedford, Concord, Carlisle, Lincoln, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston |
| Topsfield | Boxford, Middleton, and Topsfield |
| Tri-Town Health District (Lee) | Alford, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Marlborough, Otis, Sheffield, and Stockbridge |
| Tyngsborough | Billerica, Chelmsford, Tewksbury, and Tyngsborough |
| Wakefield | Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, Wakefield, Winchester |
| Westford | Acton, Dracut, Lowell, and Westford |
| Worcester | Grafton, Millbury, Shrewsbury, West Boylston, and Worcester |
| Wrentham | Franklin, Norfolk, and Wrentham |