2024 City of Manchester Overdose Prevention Strategy
The City of Manchester has been at the forefront of combatting the opioid epidemic, a challenge experienced nationwide. In 2016, the City released the "2016 City of Manchester Response to the Opioid Crisis". While the community has lead program specific initiatives since then, a city-wide investment strategy has yet to be created. In 2022, the City of Manchester Health Department secured renewed funding and technical assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO). This support enabled the City to implement comprehensive overdose prevention strategies tailored to its local community needs. Furthermore, Manchester, along with states and communities across the nation, has participated in the National Opioid Settlement against pharmacies, resulting in the establishment of the Opioid Abatement Trust Fund. While this fund provides vital resources, this strategic investment guide is designed to deploy measurable impact on the ground.
2024 City of Manchester Overdose Prevention Strategy
The 2022 Greater Manchester Community Health Needs Assessment
This year’s Greater Manchester Community Heath Needs Assessment was developed through a partnership with the Manchester Health Department and Catholic Medical Center, Elliot Health System, and Dartmouth Health. This document serves as a public data source to help inform community-level decision making and guide healthcare entities.
The priorities highlighted in the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment include:
Improve educational outcomes, reduce and prevent substance misuse, improve access to quality preventive healthcare, improve access to healthy foods, improve access to healthy and affordable housing, and prevent and address trauma.
This report also includes local input on these priorities from residents as well as key stakeholders in the community that were obtained via surveys and interviews.
The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted data collection and outcomes in the Greater Manchester community and throughout the report the effect of the pandemic is observed and disclosed.
2022 Greater Manchester Community Health Needs Assessment
Greater Manchester Community Health Needs Assessment: Assessing Manchester's
Urban Advantage
This document provides an overview of the current state of health and health-related factors among Manchester residents. This comprehensive report was developed in partnership with Catholic Medical Center and the Elliot Health System to serve as a tool that guides community level action to ensure optimal health for all Manchester residents.
The assessment identified the following community priorities for action:
- Improve educational outcomes by addressing root factors, such as chronic absenteeism, literacy, and on-time graduation rates;
- Address and prevent substance misuse, including excessive drinking and teen vaping;
- Improve access to care by increasing prevention, such as universal home visiting for pregnant women and systems changes to prevent suicide;
- Increase access to quality, affordable housing to prevent homelessness and exposure to indoor health hazards such as lead; and
- Address and prevent trauma among residents from child abuse and neglect, extreme poverty, and/or mental health distress.
For more information, please reference the following:
Executive Summary:
Greater Manchester Community Health Needs Assessment: Executive Summary
Full Report:
Greater Manchester Community Health Needs Assessment: Assessing Manchester’s Urban Advantage – June 2019
Appendix:
Greater Manchester Community Health Needs Assessment: Appendix
Community Investors Meeting – June 25, 2019
The City of Manchester is at a crossroads. Some neighborhoods and populations are prospering while others are epidemiologically wavering. Close to 100 City leaders and community investors met on June 25th with The Kresge Foundation, known for expanding opportunities in American cities, to learn about the prospect of funding strategies and financing models to improve neighborhood and community health in Manchester.
Click Below for information from the event.
Community Investing Articles
City of Manchester Neighborhood Data Dashboards - Coming Soon!
Media
Manchester Neighborhood Health Improvement Strategy
We know that the livability of a neighborhood greatly impacts the health and quality of life of its residents. However, most of our spending as a nation is on health care. The Manchester Neighborhood Health Improvement Strategy (NHIS) aims to transform this approach through neighborhood or place-based changes to create healthy neighborhoods and healthier choices. As a community action plan, the NHIS provides recommendations to maximize the impact of funding, increase resource sharing and partnerships for the greater good, and serve as a “roadmap to health” for the City’s children, families, and neighborhoods.
There are three overarching goals for the NHIS:
- Prevent toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences,
- Attain health equity, and
- Achieve environmental justice.
We are dedicated to making Manchester a “community of opportunity” that allows all to participate, prosper and ultimately reach their full potential. We practice the guiding principle that residents need to be part of the solution along with community partners, and together we share the responsibility of creating healthy neighborhoods. We are also ultimately committed to becoming an intergenerationally-celebrated, welcoming, inclusive and trauma-informed community. Our success will be measured when all Manchester families and residents thrive and give back to the greater good.
For strategy and priority recommendations, please view the Manchester Neighborhood Health Improvement Strategy.
Manchester Community Schools Project
Since 2012, the Manchester Community Schools Project has been working to transform Beech Street Elementary and Gossler Park Elementary Schools into community schools in order to connect neighbors with one another and to needed services during weekday evenings, weekends and summer months. This approach provides educational opportunities for residents of all ages, linkages to physical and mental health services, and access to social services from food and housing through community care coordination via Community Health Workers. Leadership training, adult financial literacy and High School Equivalency Test (HiSET) education, parent workshops, health screenings, and community events are also among the types of services that are being organized through the schools. In addition to Beech Street and Gossler Park Elementary Schools, there are several partner elementary schools involved in the Project, including Bakersville, Henry Wilson, and Parker Varney. This Project has been generously funded by the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Granite United Way, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Endowment for Health, and the Cogswell Benevolent Trust.
Please review our Selected Highlights of NHIS Work Within Community Schools.
Monthly Board Reports
Follow this link to view Monthly Board Reports.
Archived Reports and Documents
Follow this link to view Archived Reports and Documents.