The local hospital  (J. C. Blair Health System) was the initial champion and started to build the Collaborative as part of its Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) Implementation Plan.  Its foundation, a local 501C3, took the lead as the fiscal agent and convener to create the Collaborative.   Juniata College,  parks department, school districts, mental health agencies, restaurants, farmers markets,  and council of churches rapidly joined in.

They used the Learn it approach with a study of the community needs.  They lacked access to care and there was no directory of services, shared calendar or a way to organize donations or volunteers.  The first step was to use the Force for Health Portal as a community directory.  This was private labelled for them at www.myhealthyhuntingdon.com.

Major problems were present in individuals in the community.  On an individual level, a Health Risk Assessment was created and people could log in and LEARN IT about their problems and the education and service resources that could help them.

Some of the resources involved the Force for Health Academy.  Base level resources and localized content are shared in this online university for the masses.   The Authoring Tools are shared throughout the community.  The local college (Juniata) assists with interns and volunteers to make it easy for anyone in the community to create relevant content or service projects.  Check our the Academy at health.nuvolaacademy.com.