Investing in Open Source Public Health

Following an incredibly successful pilot launch in Garrett County, Maryland, the Garrett County Health Department was able to apply for and receive funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation thru the Public Health National Center for Innovation (PHNCI), a division of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB).

This funding assisted in the open source release, expansion, and later replication of the Garrett County Planning Tool (Universal Community Planning Tool, UCPT, previously) in diverse communities across the United States, including: the District of Columbia (DC), Allegany County, Maryland, Medina County, Ohio, Flathead City-County, Montana, and Clackamas County, Oregon.

Following these five highly successful pilots in communities both rural and urban, from coast-to-coast, Garrett County received additional funding to compose an open source guide and toolkit (v1, UCPT) and PHNCI published a comprehensive, cumulative case study produced by NORC at the University of Chicago.

The Garrett County Planning Tool continues to be replicated in communities to this day, and currently has a waiting list of communities looking for technical assistance.