In the face of a pandemic, economic recession, and increasing calls for racial justice, communities around the country are leading innovative efforts across public health, health care, and social services sectors to address community members’ needs. Many of these multi-sector partnerships are focused on relationship building and data-sharing to advance their goals, yet opportunities also exist to connect with state policymakers who can contribute resources to enhance local efforts and guide broader change.

A new report, authored by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) and Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH), describes emerging opportunities and contributing success factors for advancing multi-sector data-sharing partnerships to improve health and well-being, and advance equity. The report, which includes snapshots of state efforts across the nation, provides practical considerations to help guide community-state data-sharing partnerships.

The report was developed, in part, to help inform organizations applying for Learning and Action in Policy and Partnerships, an initiative made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by DASH in partnership with CHCS. Under the initiative, five competitively selected communities received $100,000 awards to: (a) engage partners to advance existing data-sharing or data-integration efforts; (b) share data across sectors; and (c) build relationships among community and state partners to support community goals for improved health, well-being, and equity.