Background

NNPHI’s Fostering Emerging Institutes Project is designed to help developing public health institutes (PHIs) operate with heightened efficiency and direction. The project enables our national network to share lessons learned, provide technical assistance, and mentor staff and boards so they may carry out their roles with greater skill and confidence. The project’s areas of focus include:

• Strategic and Sustainability Planning
• Resource Development and Budgets
• Board Development
• Partnership Cultivation
• Program Development
• 501(c)3 Application Process
• Organizational Communications
   

NNPHI Funds Six Emerging Institutes

In January 2011, NNPHI, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), awarded another round of grants to six emerging PHIs to help build capacity and address challenges facing the public health system. The funding will enable the six institutes to undertake a range of activities intended to cultivate partnerships, enhance executive leadership, and build the capacity to inform health policy. The funded emerging institutes include the Florida Public Health Institute, Healthy Appalachia Institute, Institute for Public Health Innovation, Rhode Island Public Health Institute, South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health, and Tennessee Institute for Public Health.  

For more information on this project, contact Erin Marziale at  or 504.301.9823. 

The emerging institutes' activities are supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Resources for Emerging Institutes

A number of resources have been developed to support emerging PHIs. Below is a brief listing. Please visit the “Public Health Institute Development” section on the eCatalog for a complete listing of resources available. 

• A Guide for Developing Public Health Institutions: A how-to Guide of several different structural options for developing an institute; fiscal and administrative management; legal considerations; and many other topics.  
   
• Keys to Success: There are five major elements for public health institutes that are critical for success.  
   
• Public Health Institute Assessment Tool: Based on best practices and lessons learned  from NNPHI members, this tool assesses strengths and areas for growth through 28 indicators of organizational sustainability. It is intended to be administered by an NNPHI representative.  
   
• Entrepreneurial Leadership: One of the most critical Keys to Succes is a leader willing to take risks and think outside-the-box in the development of a public health institute.  
   
• Sustainability Curriculum, 2007-2009: A series of webinars was created  for the grantees of the Emerging Institutes Program, April 2007- March 2009. This series was based on the Georgia Health Policy Center’s recommendations for a sustainability curriculum that would promote sound organizational development among emerging institutes.  
   
• Helping Public Health Institutes  Become a Key Player in the 'New' Public Health: Strengthening the Nation’s Public Health Institutes. RWJF completed a "Grantee Results Progress Report" that  shared the importance of investing in the nation's public health institutes and the value of the Fostering Emerging Institutes Project.