The Partnership for a Healthier Fairfax is a coalition of community members and organizations that are working together to explore new approaches for addressing critical public health issues. This diverse group of individuals, community organizations, schools, healthcare providers, nonprofits, businesses, faith communities and government agencies formed the Partnership in 2010. Once the Partnership was established, its primary objective was to create and spearhead the implementation of a wide range of community-owned, multi-sector health initiatives.

The Partnership is guided by a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). A community health improvement plan is a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems. It is developed based on the results of community health assessment activities and the community health improvement process.

The Partnership’s first CHIP covered the years 2013-2018. It included 11 goals and 31 objectives across seven priority health issues. The Partnership developed and adopted a second CHIP for 2019-2023. It included 8 goals and 20 objectives across three priority health issues: Behavioral Health, Healthy Eating (Fairfax Food Council) and Healthy Environment and Active Living (HEAL). 

The County is now in its third iteration of the CHIP (CHIP 3.0), which sets a bold vision for improving community health from 2026 through 2030.

While these results are impressive, achieving improved health outcomes takes a sustained commitment of time, resources and effort from community stakeholders and county partners. Annual reports are created to detail the progress of CHIP implementation. While the goals and objectives of the published plan are monitored closely, key actions may be revised as needed when resources change and community health needs evolve.