With increased funding and attention being paid to public health infrastructure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the time has never been better to focus on strengthening our nation’s state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies. Public health infrastructure encompasses capabilities that enable health departments to effectively deliver Foundational Public Health Services. These foundational capabilities are a focus of multiple recent public health improvement efforts, including health department accreditation and a five-year investment of significant resources by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) has an assortment of tools and services that can help health departments strengthen their infrastructure. This special issue of PHF E-Newshighlights a variety of these resources that address workforce development and overall organizational improvement.

Workforce development planning requires assessing and forecasting the needs of a health department to ensure it has the right number of people with the right knowledge, experiences, and competencies in the right jobs at the right time. Learn how PHF provides direct technical assistance and training to support health departments in creating and implementing workforce development plansthat will help in meeting Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) requirements, prioritizing the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals(Core Competencies), and filling gaps in workforce competencies.

Providing and Managing Public Health Training

The TRAIN Learning Network(TRAIN) supports health departments in providing and managing training within their organizations. Powered by PHF, TRAIN reaches more than 4 million users and provides access to a national catalog of nearly 5,000 course offerings, all on a centralized training platform.

TRAIN affiliates receive administrative access to the TRAIN Learning Management System, the ability to manage and track training for their workforce, guidance in addressing workforce needs, and membership in the TRAIN Affiliate Consortium – a learning community for TRAIN Administrators. Any federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial health department can become a TRAIN affiliate.

Learn how to become a TRAIN affiliate partner and take charge of your workforce training needs.

Putting the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals into Practice

Health departments and professionals across the nation are using the Core Competenciesto better understand, assess, and meet their workforce development needs.

To support organizations and individuals in using the Core Competencies, the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice routinely develops and updates tools to help health departments put the Core Competencies into practice.

Performance improvement is a key goal of investing in public health infrastructure. Applying practical tools in performance managementand quality improvementcan lead to continuous efforts in organization-wide performance improvement, including public health accreditation.