Why This Matters

Public health happens in the places people actually live, not just in a lab or a clinic. In Pima County, Arizona, that meant building a platform where residents could shape the health programs meant to serve them. It took a partnership between the Pima County Health Department, the community it serves and a team member trained and placed through the CDC Foundation's Workforce Acceleration Initiative, which has put more than 140 people like her into over 70 health agencies nationwide.

That kind of capacity does not happen on its own. Departments need people who can build trust, listen to a community and turn what they hear into something useful. Every gift to the CDC Foundation helps support that kind of capacity in the field, at a moment when public health needs all it can get.