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Development of the Protocol for Assessing Community
Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE EH) tool began in July 1995 as a multiyear
partnership between
NACCHO and
NCEH.
Direction and oversight came from an 18-member steering
committee that included representatives from federal agencies,
academia, and research institutions, as well as local
environmental health professionals and community organizers.
Island County (WA) Health Department Director Tim McDonald was
elected chair of the steering committee, and a workgroup of
local public health and environmental health officials with
interest and experience in assessment issues convened to write
the
PACE EH guidebook.
The workgroup’s initial charge was to develop a set of
environmental health indicators. The group unanimously agreed
that to develop such indicators, community involvement was
essential. Consequently, it recommended the development of a
community engagement tool that would guide communities through
an iterative process to identify and to rank each of the locally
important environmental health issues. The group also worked to
ensure that indicators developed during the assessment process
would be locally appropriate and would reflect community values
and priorities.