Client Middlesex-Essex Public Health Collaborative
Practice Area Strategic Planning
Uniting for Impact: The Origins of MEPHC
The Middlesex-Essex Public Health Collaborative (MEPHC) is a Shared Services Arrangement (SSA) uniting six local health departments in Massachusetts: Andover, Haverhill, Lynnfield, North Andover, North Reading, and Reading. Together, they work to increase Public Health equity, efficiency, and effectiveness across diverse urban and suburban communities in Middlesex and Essex counties. MEPHC’s mission is to enhance local capacity, advance equity, and strengthen shared Public Health practices.
In 2025, the Collaborative set out to define strategic priorities for FY26–FY30. Their objective was to strengthen sustainability, workforce capacity, service consistency, and data-informed decision-making to meet statewide expectations and local needs.
MEPHC faced several key challenges: rising expectations from the state to meet National Foundational Public Health Services standards, uneven staffing and funding across member municipalities, and uncertainty about the future of its core funding source—the Public Health Excellence (PHE) grant. At the same time, municipalities recognized the growing importance of regional efforts to respond to emerging public health issues like mental health, opioid use, and housing.
The challenge was to design a comprehensive, consensus-driven strategic plan that aligned regional priorities, promoted collaboration, and offered a framework for sustainable implementation—despite resource constraints and varied local capacity.
The process was led by the MEPHC Advisory Board with support from BME Strategies. From March to June 2025, the team conducted a structured planning process consisting of the following phases:
BME Strategies facilitated a series of collaborative planning sessions that encouraged shared learning and strengthened stakeholder engagement across member municipalities. The strategic planning process produced five clearly defined priorities: sustainability, workforce, service delivery, engagement, and data. Each priority was supported by measurable five-year goals, detailed objectives, implementation timelines, and assigned leads. To support ongoing implementation, the team developed a plan tracker that aligns the strategic plan with the deliverables outlined in the PHE grant, enabling real-time monitoring of progress across both areas of work.
The MEPHC Advisory Board formally adopted a five-year strategic plan that aligns both local and regional priorities, creating a shared roadmap for advancing Public Health across the region. The planning process identified early, tangible results, including streamlined permitting discussions, coordinated trainings, and improved inspection protocols. Stakeholders also reported increased trust, stronger interdepartmental communication, and growing enthusiasm for adopting shared practices. The plan positions the Collaborative to pursue future funding opportunities with a clear and unified direction.
Several key practices contributed to the success of this effort. Early and continuous stakeholder engagement helped build trust and ensured the plan was grounded in real-world needs and capacity. Interdisciplinary working groups promoted shared ownership and peer learning across the municipalities. The establishment of a tracking system, accountability measures, and a cadence for regular progress check-ins successfully transitioned momentum into implementation. At the same time, inconsistent participation and regulatory variation across towns presented some challenges. These were addressed through flexibility in timelines and a commitment to identifying adaptable best practices where full standardization wasn’t feasible.
Looking ahead, MEPHC is well-positioned to expand its interdisciplinary working groups to address complex regional issues like opioid response and housing enforcement. Strengthening the Collaborative’s sustainability will also require continued advocacy for long-term funding, supported by consistent documentation of progress and impact. Institutionalizing onboarding procedures, annual training calendars, and standard operating procedures will help build continuity across staff transitions. In addition, MEPHC may explore expanding its shared services model to include regional epidemiology, clinical partnerships, and other high-impact areas of collaboration.
This strategic planning process was made possible through the commitment of the MEPHC Advisory Board, shared services staff, and municipal leaders across Andover, Haverhill, Lynnfield, North Andover, North Reading, and Reading.
Shared Services Coordinator, Middlesex Essex Public Health Collaborative