About

Chronic diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. and the drivers of the country’s health care costs. Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic chronic disease disparities persist, and these are elevated by differences in the social drivers of health – those conditions where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Addressing these in meaningful ways is essential for preventing chronic disease and promoting health and health equity.

Communities and Partnerships are Driving Change

Because so many factors affect health, preventing chronic disease isn’t work that one organization can do alone. Trusted community-based organizations know where the community is strong and what’s going wrong. When residents and community-focused organizations, including state and local health departments join forces, they are well-positioned to develop strategies that respond to local needs and leverage local strengths. Multiple sectors play a role in strengthening the foundations of community health: not just health care, but education, transportation, housing, and others.

Getting Further Faster Initiative

The Getting Further Faster (GFF) initiative is a partnership between CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and community-led partnerships across the country to build the knowledge base around collaborative efforts that impact the SDOH by learning from actual work in communities. By understanding what is working and who is doing this work at the local level can inform how these efforts can be best supported by local, state and federal policies and resources and promote resilient, healthy, and inclusive communities. Since 2020, this initiative worked with selected community coalitions with a history of demonstrated impact in advancing health equity by addressing social determinants of health in one of five domains linked to chronic diseases:

Partnerships participated in a retrospective evaluation to build the evidence base on successful coalition-led strategies and received targeted training and technical assistance to advance the work of the coalitions.

History of Getting Further Faster

What We've Learned So Far ...

When communities lead efforts to strengthen the foundations of health, it works. The retrospective evaluation, conducted by RTI International, shows that these partnerships strengthened the foundations of community health and advanced health equity using different strategies, including making more spaces tobacco-free; increasing access to affordable, fresh food; building walking trails, bike lanes, and playgrounds; facilitating stronger social connections; and connecting patients to healthcare and social services in their language and culture. Community-led health partnerships reported a range of positive health outcomes, from better clinical outcomes to lower healthcare costs.

For more information on outcomes, see CDC's Brief Evaluation Report 

Please visit the CDC's Chronic Disease webpage for more information on outcomes.

Training and Technical Assistance

The Getting Further Faster initiative also provided training and technical assistance (TTA) to community-led partnerships to support them in building capacity and ensuring sustainability. TTA consisted of workshops, one-on-one coaching, and a robust suite of tools and resources. Based on the priorities of the partnerships, TTA focused on data use and management, evaluation and continuous quality improvement (CQI), policy, sustainability planning and communication strategies. TTA partners included Mathematica (TTA lead), Georgia Health Policy Center, Frameworks Institute, and Health+ Studio.

Supporting Partnerships Future Work

Partnerships received training and technical assistance to support them in building capacity and ensuring sustainability on topics such as data use and management, evaluation and continuous quality improvement (CQI), policy, sustainability planning and communication strategies. TTA partners included Mathematica (TTA lead), Georgia Health Policy Center, Frameworks Institute, and Health+ Studio. Visit the Resources page for a robust suite of tools and resources.

Community of Practice – Sharing and Learning Together

The national Community of Practice for addressing social drivers of health and chronic disease, building on what we learned from the Getting Further Faster Initiative. The learning community provides resources, tools, trainings, and support to coalitions/partnerships working together to create healthy communities. The CoP is open to state and local health departments, community partners, non-profit organizations, and healthcare partners. 

CoP webinars and resources are available in the Resource Library.