Statewide Health Improvement Partnership

The Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) creates wellness across Minnesota’s communities through community-driven, evidence-based, and equity-focused programs that tackle the root causes of chronic diseases. Through technical assistance and community partner awards, local SHIP staff support community initiatives that promote Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) in Schools, Childcares, Workplaces, Healthcare settings, and the broader Community within four contexts:

• MN Eats: Ensuring that all people in Minnesota experience an equitable, just, nourishing, and resilient food system that is responsive to change.
• MN Moves: Supporting systemic change in transportation and recreation to increase active living opportunities, especially people of color, those with disabilities, low-income and low-wealth communities, youth and older adults.
• MN Breathes: Empowering communities facing tobacco-related disparities and most targeted by the tobacco industry, recognizing social determinants of health and lifting up community assets.
• MN Well-being: Investing in opportunities to create equitable, healthy, and positive conditions that promote trauma-informed approaches to increased well-being for all Minnesotans.

The Steele County SHIP Community Partner Awards are currently paused. Steele County SHIP staff are currently conducting the SHIP Overall Assessment and Prioritization (SOAP). This assessment will help identify community needs, priority populations, and evidence-based strategies related to active living, food access, and commercial tobacco prevention in our community. As part of this approach, there will be no requests for proposals (RFP) for SHIP community partner awards in 2025-26. Instead, targeted RFPs will be released later in 2026 for specific strategies identified through the SOAP that partners may apply for funding to implement.