Primary Department: Public Health Services
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Leah Barton ─ Executive Director
Secondary Department: N/A
Secondary Department Head/Elected Official:
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Financial Authorization
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): 0%
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request for approval to purchase gift cards using grant funds in the amount of $3,000 to provide incentives for participants in the Healthy Communities Framework project usability tests.
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Background and Discussion:
The Healthy Communities Framework (HCF), led by Harris County Public Health (HCPH), is a countywide data tool designed to help public health practitioners, researchers, and local partners, and the community better understand the structural and environmental conditions that shape health across Harris County. Adapted from the World Health Organization’s Urban HEART model and informed by extensive local input, the HCF uses a comprehensive set of publicly available indicators that reflect nonmedical determinants of health such as education, social and human development, physical environment, infrastructure, and economic conditions. This session will describe how indicators were selected, including data availability, reliability, geographic granularity, and relevance to community identified priorities. Presenters will outline the methodological process for developing thresholds that classify indicators into tiered categories, enabling clearer interpretation of disparities across neighborhoods.
Expected Impact:
Using the Public Health Infrastructure grant, the gift card incentives will ensure meaningful participation from a diverse group of Harris County residents during the usability tests, which will enable HCPH to gather critical information to refine the tool before dissemination.
Alternative Options:
The alternative option would be to not provide gift card incentives which may result in lower participation rates during usability testing at various community events. This would inhibit HCPH from providing a tool that is easy to navigate and interpret by Harris County community members. Alternative options include reducing incentive amounts or limiting the number of usability test participants, though this would decrease the quality and representativeness of feedback needed to develop effective tool that could be used by Harris County community members.
CountyStrategic Plan Goal: 4. Improve physical and mental health outcomes across all communities.
County Strategic Plan Objective: N: Improve the health behaviors of community members.
Justice/Safety Initiative (Goal 1): Choose an item.
Infrastructure Initiative (Goal 2): Choose an item.
Economy Initiative (Goal 3): Choose an item.
Health Initiative (Goal 4): Choose an item.
Climate/Resilience Initiative (Goal 5): Choose an item.
Housing Initiative (Goal 6): Choose an item.
Additional notes related to the Strategic Plan:
Prior Court Action (if any):
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Precinct(s): Countywide
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County Attorney’s Office Legal Review (for Harris County Code Items only) |
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Anticipated Court Date: June 11, 2026
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): June 11, 2026
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Jennifer Kiger, MPH, Director, Office of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Emerging Diseases, Public Health Services
Attachments (if applicable): N/A