Strategic Alliance for Health

Albany County Department of Health is proud to be one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Strategic Alliance for Health (SAH) communities.

The purpose of the Strategic Alliance for Health (SAH) is to enable communities to reduce the burden of chronic disease through sustainable, evidence-based chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs that focus on policy and environmental change, rather than individual behavioral changes.

The Albany County Strategic Alliance for Health specifically targets poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, and tobacco use, as they are the underlying risk factors for a variety of chronic diseases (diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease) in the City of Albany’s Arbor Hill, West Hill, North Albany, and South End neighborhoods. 

This initiative serves to:

• Promote physical activity and nutrition;
• Reduce tobacco use and exposure;
• Build capacity for communities to be able to institute systems, environmental, organizational and policy changes related to these health risk factors;
• Foster improved and increased access to quality care;
• Help eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities; and
• Reduce complications from and incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity.

An Albany County coalition of community stakeholders has identified the following as the SAH strategies for Year 3:

Strategy 1: Increase the availability and visibility of affordable healthier food and beverage choices in public and/or private venues.

Strategy 2: Increase the amount of physical activity in physical education classes, within the school day outside of physical education class, or in extracurricular and community opportunities.

Strategy 3: Increase access to outdoor recreational facilities and/or enhance infrastructure supporting walking, biking and/or other forms of physical activity for community residents of all ages and abilities.

Strategy 4: Promote cessation from tobacco use through policy, system, and environmental changes.

For more information please contact Suzanne Swan at (518) 447-4648 or by email at Suzanne.Swan@albanycounty.com