Development of HNJ

The Healthy New Jersey (HNJ) initiative is the basis for New Jersey’s State Health Improvement Plan, the goal of which is to improve the health and well-being of all New Jerseyans. HNJ is refreshed every five years including establishing a framework for the initiative, determining topic areas to organize the project, developing goals, identifying new measurable objectives, setting target values, creating action plans, and implementing those action plans to achieve the established targets by the end of the five-year cycle.

The development of HNJ is a multiyear process with input from a diverse group of subject matter experts, organizations, and members of the public.

New information about the status of the current HNJ cycle is posted on this website as it becomes available. Subscribe to HNJ News to receive future updates by email.

What's Next in 2026?

Recruitment and orientation of Action Team members for each Topic Area in preparation for action plan implementation.

Completed Activities

The HNJ Coordinating Committee adopted a framework for the HNJ initiative in March 2019. The framework explains the central ideas and function of the initiative and was used to guide the selection and prioritization of topics, goals, strategies, and objectives. It was adapted from the Healthy People 2030 Framework.
The HNJ Advisory Council established four broad Topic Areas and three cross-cutting issues in October 2019.

Health Equity Community Conversations (HECCs) planned for April and May 2020 had to be cancelled due to COVID-19.
Community Conversations: Pandemic Perspectives, NJ’s COVID-19 Storytelling Project was created to bridge the gap created by the cancelled HECCs. The New Jersey YMCA State Alliance, in collaboration with NJDOH, gathered, documented, and analyzed the personal accounts of more than 580 New Jersey residents to collect crucial information from priority populations around the state about how they were affected by COVID-19.
HNJ Action Teams for each Topic Area held a series of meetings to
- Refine the scope of and determine the priorities within their Topic Area.
- Review relevant internal and external health-related action plans already in use in New Jersey and identify gaps.
- Create a goal for each priority in the Topic Areas.

The final report and executive summary of Community Conversations: Pandemic Perspectives, NJ’s COVID-19 Storytelling Project were released.
HNJ Action Teams developed strategies to achieve each Topic Area’s goals.

Development was on hiatus throughout most of 2023 and all of 2024 due to staffing issues.

NJDOH hired a full time Healthy New Jersey/State Health Improvement Plan coordinator in early 2025.
The HNJ Coordinating Committee and the HNJ Advisory Council:
- Reassessed and consolidated the four initial topics into three areas.
- Used quantitative state public health data and qualitative information gathered from the Community Conversations: Pandemic Perspectives, NJ’s COVID-19 Storytelling Project to refine each Topic Area’s goals and priorities.
- Prioritized and selected the Action Teams’ strategies and actions to be implemented.
- Established specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound (SMART) objectives to measure success.
- Set target values to be reached by 2030 for those objectives based on Healthy People guidelines.
The refined, prioritized, and compiled action plans, which will become the next State Health Improvement Plan.

Official Site of The State of New Jersey

Healthy New Jersey