Healthy Community Planning New Jersey, referred to as “HCP-NJ,” is a website jointly developed by the NJ Departments of Health (NJDOH) and Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to assist local community planning activities. The site provides individual, municipal-level reports that offer a snapshot of a municipality’s health and environmental data to help promote a healthy and safe environment. HCP-NJ was developed by NJDOH and NJDEP working in partnership as part of the New Jersey Environmental Public Health Tracking (NJ EPHT) project, with funding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The HCP-NJ target audience is local government officials and community organizations including health officers, environmental commissioners, and planners; non-profit and community groups; and the state agencies working with these partners. Each municipality is encouraged to use their customized HCP-NJ report to inform their community assessment and planning efforts. The data in the reports can help prioritize local health and environmental concerns, guide public health actions, identify strategies for improvement, and shape policy decisions. HCP-NJ can also directly help the public learn more about environmental public health to make a difference in their community.

HCP-NJ health indicators were largely selected from indicators developed by the national EPHT Program, whose work focuses on health outcomes and environmental indicators. Each HCP-NJ report begins with a Community Data Summary page which outlines the municipality’s most recent public health and environment indicator values, with relevant county and State values included for comparison. Following the Community Data Summary page is the About the Town page which provides municipal level demographic, land use, and health care data. The remainder of each report provides context on each indicator and ideas on how to turn the data into action. The HCP-NJ website also includes map books, a glossary, FAQs, and technical notes.

The HCP-NJ website provides a list of resources with links to additional information and resources to help users better understand how to use these data to implement actions to improve health outcomes.