System Transformation
- Home: System Transformation
- Foundational Responsibilities and Framework
- Joint Leadership Team
- Innovation Projects (Minn. Infrastructure Fund)
- Governance Groups and Communities of Practice
- Tribal Capacity and Infrastructure
- Local Public Health
- FPHR Grant: Funding for Foundational Responsibilities
- FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
- Newsletters, Reports, Resources
- Reports, Fact Sheets, Resources
- Newsletter
- Message Toolkit
Related Sites
System Transformation
- Home: System Transformation
- Foundational Responsibilities and Framework
- Joint Leadership Team
- Innovation Projects (Minn. Infrastructure Fund)
- Governance Groups and Communities of Practice
- Tribal Capacity and Infrastructure
- Local Public Health
- FPHR Grant: Funding for Foundational Responsibilities
- FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
- Newsletters, Reports, Resources
- Reports, Fact Sheets, Resources
- Newsletter
- Message Toolkit
Related Sites
Minnesota Infrastructure Fund Projects: Local Innovation, Big Transformation
Transforming the public health system in Minnesota
Innovation that challenges the status quo is needed to develop novel, creative approaches to improving the public health system by fulfilling foundational public health responsibilities.
Minnesota’s local health departments and Tribal Nations are testing local innovations across the state, through grants from the Minnesota Infrastructure Fund.
Local communities are often best positioned to implement novel approaches to public health because they are on the front lines, identifying the gaps and problems in the current public health system. They are also able to adapt, iterate, and scale innovative approaches quickly for maximum impact.
On this page
Innovation projects by region
About the Minnesota Infrastructure Fund
How were these projects selected?
Apply for funding
Innovation projects by region
What is a community health board? Learn more: Minnesota's Public Health System: Community Health Boards
Current Northwest innovation projects
Cooperate across local and Tribal health teams to create health messages that resonate with different cultures
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards and Tribal Nations: Beltrami (fiscal host), Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation
Test a new system where Tribal and local public health experts track and respond to diseases across communities more effectively
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating county and Tribal Nation: Itasca, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (fiscal host, via Aitkin-Itasca-Koochiching Community Health Board)
Explore new and effective ways to cooperate on communications and public health education across rural local public health departments (visit: North Country Community Health Board Media)
July 2022 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2023-2026)
Participating community health boards: Beltrami, North Country (fiscal host) (Clearwater, Hubbard, Lake of the Woods)
Join forces to more effectively track and use population health data regionally, across rural local public health departments, using shared tools and knowledge (also called the North West 8 Collective Consortium; visit: Public Health Data and Reports [Quin County])
July 2022 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2023-2026)
Participating community health boards: Polk-Norman-Mahnomen, Quin County (fiscal host) (Marshall, Red Lake, Pennington, Kittson, Roseau)
Explore new and effective ways to collaborate on communications across rural local public health departments, regional public health communications and education
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Partnership4Health (Becker, Clay, Otter Tail, Wilkin), Polk-Norman-Mahnomen (fiscal host)
Completed Northwest innovation projects
Grow local public health departments' ability to cooperate across a region on environmental public health work
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health boards: Marshall (county only), Pennington-Red Lake (health department only), Polk-Norman-Mahnomen (fiscal host)
Current Northeast innovation projects
Explore ways for rural areas to collect and use population health data more effectively, so they can make smart decisions to keep their communities healthy
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards: Aitkin-Itasca-Koochiching (fiscal host), Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis
Cooperate across local and Tribal health teams to create health messages that resonate with different cultures
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards and Tribal Nations: Beltrami (fiscal host), Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation
Test a new system where Tribal and local public health experts track and respond to diseases across communities more effectively
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating county and Tribal Nation: Itasca, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (fiscal host, via Aitkin-Itasca-Koochiching Community Health Board)
Grow a regional team that helps local public health departments better understand, share, and talk about data, to prevent health issues across the entire community before they start (visit: Let's modernize public health together [Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis])
July 2022 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2023-2026)
Participating community health boards: Aitkin-Itasca-Koochiching, Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis (fiscal host)
Read more about this project:
- Arrowhead region: Building a strong foundation for data-informed planning, communications, and decision-making [MDH] (note: this article refers to a previous iteration of this project)
Completed Northeast innovation projects
All projects in the Northeast region are currently active.
Current West Central innovation projects
Cooperate across local and Tribal health teams to create health messages that resonate with different cultures
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards and Tribal Nations: Beltrami (fiscal host), Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation
Create a hub that combines population health stories, data, and maps to help communities understand and prevent population health issues
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Countryside (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, Yellow Medicine), Horizon (fiscal host) (Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, Traverse)
Explore new and effective ways to collaborate on communications across rural local public health departments, regional public health communications and education
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Partnership4Health (Becker, Clay, Otter Tail, Wilkin), Polk-Norman-Mahnomen (fiscal host)
Completed West Central innovation projects
Design more responsive and effective ways to share public health information using modern tools and trusted voices in the community
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Horizon (Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, Traverse)
Grow the knowledge, skills, and abilities of local public health experts to share disease and population health data, while building organizational and community relationships to maintain similar work across county and state lines
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Partnership4Health (Becker, Clay, Otter Tail, Wilkin)
Current Central innovation projects
Cooperate across local and Tribal health teams to create health messages that resonate with different cultures
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards and Tribal Nations: Beltrami (fiscal host), Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation
Bring together public health, community organizations, and medical care systems, to share data and ideas so communities can better collaborate on improving community health
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards: Benton (fiscal host), Sherburne, Stearns
Test a new system where Tribal and local public health experts track and respond to diseases across communities more effectively
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating county and Tribal Nation: Itasca, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (fiscal host, via Aitkin-Itasca-Koochiching Community Health Board)
Completed Central innovation projects
All projects in the Central region are currently active.
Current Metro innovation projects
Discover a more effective method to track and help prevent the spread of infectious diseases in jails and correctional facilities
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards: Dakota, St. Paul-Ramsey (fiscal host), Washington
Make it easier to share population health trends between hospitals and public health departments so they can respond quickly and effectively (also called Health Trends Across Communities in Minnesota)
July 2022 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2023-2026)
Participating community health boards: Hennepin
Read more about this project:
- Twin Cities metro: Electronic health records can supplement local public health data collection [MDH]
- Health Trends Across Communities: a healthcare system-public health collaboration to advance health equity across Minnesota [Annals of Family Medicine]
- Health Trends Across Communities in Minnesota: a statewide dashboard leveraging the OMOP CDM to monitor the prevalence of health conditions (8:16) [Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics]
In partnership with trusted community organizations, develop strategies to help the Latine community care for mental health in ways that prevent serious issues
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Carver (fiscal host), Scott
Increase ways to partner with cultural communities, to more effectively co-create and share important and accurate health information in many languages and cultural styles, so that all people have the information they need to be their healthiest (visit: Trusted Messenger Initiative [St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health])
July 2022 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2023-2026)
Participating community health boards: Dakota, St. Paul-Ramsey (fiscal host)
Create and support an evidence-based plan to make pregnancy and birth safer for all parents and babies, by partnering with, listening to, and following the lead of African American and American Indian communities (visit: Birth Justice Collaborative Partnership)
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Hennepin (fiscal host), Minneapolis
Completed Metro innovation projects
Help people to recover from addiction and prevent community harm by studying the impacts of safe recovery sites and working in partnership with neighboring communities
July 2024 through June 2025 (state fiscal year 2025)
Participating community health boards: Minneapolis (fiscal host), St. Paul-Ramsey
Grow local public health departments' ability to serve all residents more effectively, by integrating trauma-informed methods and practices
July 2022 through June 2025 (state fiscal years 2023-2025)
Participating community health boards: Bloomington, Edina, Hennepin (fiscal host) Minneapolis, Richfield
Team up with the city and community groups to make sure everyone has what they need to be their healthiest
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health boards: Bloomington (fiscal host), Edina, Richfield
Fund and support community work in new ways, to make sure everyone’s voice is heard in finding and sustaining ways to keep their community its healthiest
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Carver
Current Southwest innovation projects
Cooperate as a region with a university, and build a regional partnership, to train future public health workers who will help prevent population health problems across many communities (visit: About the Collaborative for Rural Public Health Innovation)
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Brown, Countryside (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, Yellow Medicine), Des Moines Valley (Cottonwood, Jackson), Faribault-Martin (fiscal host), Kandiyohi-Renville, Le Sueur-Waseca, Meeker-McLeod-Sibley, Nicollet, Southwest (Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Pipestone, Rock, Redwood), Watonwan
Create a hub that combines population health stories, data, and maps to help communities understand and prevent population health issues
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Countryside (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, Yellow Medicine), Horizon (fiscal host) (Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, Traverse)
Completed Southwest innovation projects
Build better ways to share population health data in rural areas, working with local leaders to prevent health problems
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Countryside (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, Yellow Medicine)
Grow support for mental health in the community by working together across sectors and developing new partnerships, and help communities understand and use population health data
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Des Moines Valley (Cottonwood, Jackson)
Current South Central innovation projects
Explore the pros and cons of different ways to join work (organization, structure, governance) across health departments, to serve people more effectively
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards: Le Sueur-Waseca
Explore the pros and cons of different ways to join work (organization, structure, governance) across health departments, to serve people more effectively
July 2025 through June 2027 (state fiscal years 2026-2027)
Participating community health boards: Meeker-McLeod-Sibley
Cooperate as a region with a university, and build a regional partnership, to train future public health workers who will help prevent population health problems across many communities (visit: About the Collaborative for Rural Public Health Innovation)
July 2024 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2025-2026)
Participating community health boards: Brown, Countryside (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, Yellow Medicine), Des Moines Valley (Cottonwood, Jackson), Faribault-Martin (fiscal host), Kandiyohi-Renville, Le Sueur-Waseca, Meeker-McLeod-Sibley, Nicollet, Southwest (Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Pipestone, Rock, Redwood), Watonwan
Completed South Central innovation projects
Explore ways for community health workers to help share population health information and education, to build departments' capacity for communications
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Le Sueur-Waseca
Current Southeast innovation projects
Expand a shared system to collect and study population health trends across Southeast Minnesota, helping communities more effectively share and use population health data to solve community health issues (visit: Southeast Minnesota Public Health Data [Olmsted County])
July 2022 through June 2026 (state fiscal years 2023-2026)
Participating community health boards: Dodge-Steele, Fillmore-Houston, Freeborn, Goodhue, Mower, Olmsted (fiscal host), Rice, Wabasha, Winona
Read more about this project:
- Southeastern Minnesota: A region shares data, expertise, and partnership [MDH]
- Olmsted County pilots a regional population health data hub to improve data accessibility [ASTHO]
- Supporting rural counties through a regional population health data hub in Southeast Minnesota (24:42) [ASTHO]
Completed Southeast innovation projects
Explore ways for different jurisdictions to work together on mutually beneficial projects, while growing all participants' ability to use and share population health data
July 2022 through June 2024 (state fiscal years 2023-2024)
Participating community health board: Goodhue
About the Minnesota Infrastructure Fund
In its 2021 session, the Minnesota Legislature recognized the important role of public health. In addition to other investments, the legislature provided a $6 million annual appropriation for community health boards and Tribal governments to build public health capacity; in its 2025 session, the Minnesota Legislature amended the funding to a $4 million annual appropriation. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) convened a group of State Community Health Advisory Committee (SCHSAC) Executive Committee members and public health leaders to determine the best use of these funds.
The Minnesota Infrastructure Fund is administered by the MDH Center for Public Health Practice.
Scope: Based on consultation with SCHSAC and informed by the Joint Leadership Team for System Transformation, applicants for funds are required to:
- Address an area or capability in the foundational public health responsibilities framework
- Collaborate across jurisdictions
- Demonstrate benefit to Minnesota’s public health system
- Demonstrate buy-in from others on how partner jurisdictions will benefit from the work
- Identify how proposed projects support the vision for a seamless, responsive, publicly-supported public health system
Coaching and technical assistance: Grantees participate in regular check-ins with staff from the MDH Center for Public Health Practice, and participate in grantee meetings throughout the project.
Time frame: New projects are funded for two years with a two-year renewal option. Award amounts are likely to range between $100,000-$400,000/year, but applicants are encouraged to apply for the funds they need to ensure a successful project. Current Minnesota Public Health Infrastructure Fund grantees, meaning those with active grant agreements, can only apply for continuing funding if they are in their first or second years of funding. Projects in their third year are not eligible for continued funding; the application would need to be for a new innovation project.
Eligibility: Minnesota community health boards and Tribal Nations are eligible to apply.
How were these projects selected?
To select the specific projects noted above, MDH convened a broadly representative application review team that included:
- A SCHSAC representative to the Joint Leadership Team
- An MDH representative to the Joint Leadership Team
- An LPHA representative to the Joint Leadership Team
- A representative from the MDH Office of American Indian Health
- Local public health leaders and SCHSAC members from jurisdictions that are not applying for funds
- External partners with relevant knowledge and expertise
Evaluation criteria include: Building capacity in a foundational responsibility, demonstration of organizational need and of how the proposed approach meets that need, identification of potential lessons learned for how to build capacity for foundational responsibilities statewide, consideration of health equity.
Apply for funding
Learn more: State Infrastructure Fund Projects: Application and Request for Proposals