Celebrating 5 Years of PHERN: Strengthening the Public Health Ecosystem
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Moments of disruption often spark new approaches to collaboration and coordination. Five years ago, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, one such effort began to take shape that ultimately became PHERN, the Public Health Equity Resource Navigator.
PHERN is a free, public website that aims to help changemakers navigate resources focused on improving the public’s health, advancing equity, and building a resilient, robust, sustainable public health system for the future.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) convened a coalition of nonprofit organizations to form the Alliance for Disease Prevention and Response (now the Alliance for the Public’s Health) with the goal to expand the reach and impact of public health efforts through coordinated, cross-sector collaboration.
As this work unfolded, a clear need emerged: shared infrastructure to help people find, organize, and apply knowledge for COVID-19 response. Organizations and networks struggled navigating an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving landscape of information, tools, and resources, and found themselves looking beyond the current crisis and toward a more connected and effective public health ecosystem.
Bringing the Vision to Life
Drawing on our experience building platforms (like Community Commons!) that support shared learning, action, and knowledge management, APHA and the Alliance partnered with IP3 to bring their vision to life.
Together, we dreamed that PHERN could be infrastructure for the public health sector and its allies–a digital platform for partners to curate resources, organize knowledge, and connect their work to a broader ecosystem.The beta version of PHERN launched on Community Commons in fall 2020. The full platform was launched during National Public Health Week in 2021.
Grounded in a commitment to equity and systems change, PHERN was designed for navigating a wide range of informational resources—from data tools and research to stories, communications materials, and practical toolkits—focused on improving the public’s health and building a more resilient system for the future.
Growth Through Partnership
PHERN has been shaped by the partners who contribute to and use it. Its collaborative model—grounded in shared curation and stewardship—has enabled the platform to grow in ways that reflect the evolving needs of those working to ensure the public’s health.
Over the past five years, this has included:
Development of a dedicated portal for Vaccinate Your Family, supporting coordinated vaccine education and outreach
Collaboration with Cooperative Extension partners on Public Health AmeriCorps, connecting members to learning opportunities
Creation of curated content for emerging and early career professionals, advancing fundamental knowledge about public health and workforce development
Partner-driven tools including the Build and Bridge Library and public health advocacy resources, centering practical tools to support action
These efforts demonstrate how PHERN supports partners in organizing and sharing their work while contributing to a more aligned and connected public health ecosystem.
PHERN Today: Supporting Learning, Connection, and Action
Today, PHERN supports thousands of users each month and continues to serve as a shared platform for learning and action. The platform includes:
Structured learning series that support knowledge-building across key public health topics
Searchable, curated libraries that make partner resources easy to find and use
Toolkits, stories, and reference materials to inspire action
Content is intentionally curated with a bias toward action and accessible to a wide range of users—from public health practitioners and community leaders to students, advocates, and cross-sector partners working to advance health and equity. PHERN functions not only as a collection of resources, but as shared infrastructure that helps connect people, organizations, and efforts working to improve community health and well-being.
Looking Ahead
As PHERN reaches this five-year milestone, the importance of shared infrastructure that supports coordination, learning, and action remains clear. PHERN is sustainable and will continue to be relevant and evolve alongside the field, including ongoing efforts to expand and refine learning content, engage a broader range of users, and surface perspectives that reflect lived experiences.
There are opportunities to deepen how PHERN supports collaboration across the public health ecosystem to support learning communities, collaboratives, and networks to organize knowledge and collaborate to improve the public’s health. PHERN will continue to be shaped by its partners and by the needs of the field—serving as a flexible, shared platform that contributes to more connected, coordinated, and effective public health efforts.
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