Healthy Howard, Inc. began with County Exec­u­tive Ken Ulman’s vision to make Howard County, Mary­land a model pub­lic health com­mu­nity.  Along with Health Offi­cer Dr. Peter Beilen­son, Ulman launched the Healthy Howard Ini­tia­tive. From its launch in 2007, Healthy Howard has been guided by the prin­ci­ple that being healthy requires the par­tic­i­pa­tion of both pub­lic and pri­vate enti­ties and orga­ni­za­tions that are an inte­gral part of an individual’s life and together com­pose their community. 

The Healthy Howard Health Plan (HHHP)

HHHP tack­les two of the tough­est pub­lic health chal­lenges fac­ing our coun­try today: access to health­care for the unin­sured and dis­ease pre­ven­tion through healthy lifestyle change. HHHP inno­v­a­tively com­bines a Patient Cen­tered Med­ical Home Model with an award-winning Health Coach­ing pro­gram to pro­vide low-income County res­i­dents with afford­able health­care ser­vices and one-on-one sup­port as they decrease dis­ease risk by adopt­ing health­ier lifestyle habits.  HHHP serves adults 19 to 63 years old who are US Cit­i­zens or Per­ma­nent Res­i­dents liv­ing in Howard County, MD.

Com­mu­nity Health Promotions

Healthy Howard, Inc. now runs a num­ber of vol­un­tary com­mu­nity health pro­mo­tion pro­grams focused on key insti­tu­tions, includ­ing Healthy Schools, Healthy Restau­rants, Healthy Work­places, Healthy Recre­ation and Healthy Child­care.  Each of these com­po­nents has their own goals and bench­marks for success. 

Door to HealthCare

Healthy Howard, Inc. and the Howard County Health Depart­ment launched the “Door to Health­Care” on Jan­u­ary 18, 2011 to bring effi­cient access to Howard County res­i­dents who are nav­i­gat­ing their way through pub­lic health care options.  Clients can speak to a bilin­gual staff mem­ber over the phone or in-person about their eli­gi­bil­ity for health­care pro­grams, find out the sta­tus of their cur­rent appli­ca­tion, and get con­nected to health­care providers that accept their insur­ance plan.

Pol­icy and Advocacy

The pri­or­i­ties of this part of Healthy Howard include pro­mot­ing health­ier foods in schools and increased exercise/play time dur­ing the school day and health care reform imple­men­ta­tion.  The goal is to build a grass­roots move­ment that is actively involved in pro­mot­ing poli­cies that improve res­i­dents’ access to healthy, afford­able food and fun, safe places for recreation.