Welcome to the Challenge

Group photo of the HCCC grantees and the Challenge team outside of APHA offices

The 20 Healthiest Cities & Counties Challenge project teams made a profound impact on social determinants of health — the conditions that affect community health — with a focus on food access and access to health care. Learn more about their strategies and approaches by exploring our website!


New Health Equity Tool

Story map example from New Brunswick, New Jersey

Explore six interactive stories that span the life of the program, highlighting the collaborative, community-led strategies used to achieve health equity. You will also find tips to adapt the approaches to systemic change to fit your community context.

Access the health equity tool
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About the Challenge

Health equity is a guiding priority and core value of the American Public Health Association. That's why we teamed up with the Aetna Foundation, the National Association of Counties and Healthy Places by Design to support city- and county-level teams in advancing health equity within their communities through the Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge.

The program offered one-on-one technical assistance and peer learning opportunities to 20 communities in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The selected jurisdictions showed a readiness to expand cross-sector collaboration, build resident leadership and power, and take collective action.

Over the two years, the communities worked to reduce disparities in chronic disease outcomes with a focus on improving access to healthy food and healthcare services.

Learn more about our 20 Healthiest Cities & Counties Challenge communities.


Communities4Health Blog

Our bi-weekly posts highlight the work of the Healthiest Cities and Counties Challenge and feature interviews with members of the Challenge community.


Stay in touch!

Have a question about the Challenge? Email Arianne Noorestani.