Improving the health of a community is critical to ensuring the quality of life of its residents and fostering sustainability and future prosperity. Health is intertwined with many different facets of our lives; where we work, live, learn, and play all have an impact on our health. Understanding the current health status of a community and all of the different factors that influence health is important in order to identify priorities for program planning and coordination across partner organizations.

In 2003, the Health Improvement Alliance (HIA) was formed to help address the health needs of the Greater Bridgeport community, which includes the six towns of Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull. Initially named the Primary Care Action Group (PCAG), HIA is a coalition of two neighboring hospitals, Bridgeport Hospital and St. Vincent’s Medical Center, along with the seven departments of public health, federally qualified health centers, and about 50 community and non-profit organizations all serving the Greater Bridgeport Region. The mission and vision of HIA is to work together to identify, prioritize, and measurably improve the health of the community through prevention, education, and services.  In early 2020, HIA expanded to a seven-town region and now also includes the town of Milford.

HIA leads a comprehensive regional triennial Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) effort, to identify the health-related needs in the region and create an implementation plan to prioritize and plan on how to address those top health needs. The current 2022-2025 priority areas for HIA are child well-being, healthy lifestyles, behavioral health, and access to care. HIA oversees the work of all four task forces that address each of the priority areas.