Inventorying community health promotion and risk reduction services: Virginia's approach

Early in this decade the U.S. Centers for Disease Control gave a mandate to states receiving Health Education/Risk Reduction Funds (HERR) to inventory health promotion and risk reduction services. This article reports on the findings of the Northern Virginia Inventorying Project, in which an existing service classification system in use in a health planning district serving over one million people was modified to permit the annual inventorying of community health promotion and risk reduction services. The approach has utility for community health education needs assessments, ongoing evaluation of community services and progress vis-à-vis health status indicators, and for the diffusion of health promotion service information to service providers and the public.