Strengthening the Community of Practice for Public Health Improvement (COPPHI) 

COPPHI is a two-year, $1.75 million project led by NNPHI and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that facilitates the exchange of best practices and builds capacity among the nation’s public health departments to become accredited and conduct quality improvement (QI).  Launched as the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) opened its doors to receive the first accreditation applications from health departments, COPPHI is the next stage in NNPHI's efforts to nurture and expand the community of practice focused on accreditation and QI. 

COPPHI promotes shared learning among a broad range of local, state, and tribal health department representatives; researchers; public health institutes; universities; national public health organizations; funders; policymakers; government agencies; and boards of health through:

• Open Forum Meeting for Quality Improvement in Public Health: NNPHI hosts a national accreditation- and QI-focused meeting that convenes QI experts, practitioners, and members of the Community of Practice. Additionally, NNPHI sponsors the costs associated with attending these meetings for up to 125 practitioners preparing for accreditation and engaging in QI.
• QI Award Program: Through COPPHI small contracts and individualized, distance-based QI coaching will be awarded to 60 public health organizations selected via a competitive process.   

Additionally, NNPHI is coordinating public health partner organizations to promote the use of the Practice Exchange, a new searchable online database that will organize information from the rapidly growing number of public health quality improvement projects. NNPHI manages a national advisory group for the Practice Exchange.

COPPHI's implementation runs from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2013. 

For more information about COPPHI, please contact Whitney Magendie, Program Coordinator, at .