The Community Level Health Project (CLHP) is an innovative, upstream gambling prevention project that is centered on the engagement of community stakeholders and multi-sector collaboration. The purpose is for a community-based organization within gambling host communities to propose and implement a community level health improvement plan that through a community-driven assessment process will identify and address a specific gambling-related health concern that outlines and identify strategies to be implemented at the community level to address the prioritized gambling-related health concern.

The key components of this project include:

• Establish multi-sector community partnerships to identify the priorities that address a specific existing health concern exacerbated by the presence of a casino in the area.
• Work with community partners to conduct an assessment to identify and prioritize gambling-related health concerns, as well as identifying and prioritizing strategies to address the prioritized gambling-related health concerns
• Develop a community health improvement plan based on findings from planning process conducted with community partners
• Implement strategies to address the identified health concern and evaluate to determine their effectiveness in improving the health of focus populations.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health Office of Problem Gambling Services currently funds two communities in Springfield and Everett to implement the Community Level Health Project. Find out more about each of their unique projects below:

• Community Health Level Project – Everett
• Community Health Level Project – Springfield