Resource Center

The Partnership for better Health developed this Planned Giving Guide in 2014 to support fundraising efforts of our local nonprofits.

The Partnership for Better Health compiled this informal resource guide in March of 2023 with the assistance of community agencies. The guide is not intended to be a formal publication or all-encompassing. We recognize there are many additional resources in our community that will be useful to our new neighbors. We compiled this guide with urgency in mind to help meet immediate needs.

Cumberland and Perry Counties’ parks, trails and recreational areas create a healthy environment in which we all can be physically active and enjoy the great outdoors. The newest edition of the Simply Moving Guide provides a map and detailed site information for more than 200 local parks and trails near your home, school and workplace.

The Partnership for Better Health was pleased to support the Cumberland County Planning Department in designing the new guide. The Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) provided additional funding, and the South Mountain Partnership and Appalachian Trail Conservancy provided project support.

Download the Simply Moving Guide here or feel free to pick up a printed copy at our office.

Cumberland County Guide to Human Resources 2025 – Prepared by Cumberland County Homeless Assistance Program (HAP), this guide is a compilation of aging services, child adoption & foster services, clothing & non-consumable items, drug & alcohol services, financial assistance, food & nutrition, housing, legal services, and more.

Perry County Human Services – contact information related to rental assistance, mental health, drug & alcohol commission, and more.

211 is the most comprehensive source of locally curated social services information in the US.  211 allows all residents of Pennsylvania to have access to customized health, housing and human services information in one place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  211 is a one-stop resource to find information about community services; no more guessing or unnecessary calls.  Language services are available in more than 170 languages and dialects. Every hour of every day, someone searches for services, from substance abuse treatment to care for a child or an aging parent.  211’s specially trained Call Specialists can assist by answering your questions and connecting you to thousands of health and human services programs in your community.

Learn more: https://www.pa211.org/

CONTACT Helpline’s listening line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you call, you will be connected with a specialist who will listen confidentially, compassionately, and without judgment to whatever is on your mind.

CONTACT Helpline is the PA 211 provider for the South Central region of Pennsylvania which can help with the following services and more: Crisis Hotlines, Housing, Mental Health, Community, Substance Use, Reentry, Transportation, Legal Services, Family Help, and more.

Learn more: https://www.contacthelpline.org/

The Community Action Association of Pennsylvania supports onboarding, ongoing training, and resources for local nonprofits to engage with the PA Navigate platform.

PA Navigate is an online tool that connects Pennsylvanians with community-based organizations, county and state agencies, and healthcare providers, for referrals to community resources that help them meet their most basic needs such as food, shelter, transportation, and more.

Learn more about how you can engage with the Community Engagement Team to claim your listings and utilize PA Navigate’s free tools for social and community service organizations: https://www.panavigatehelp.org/

Cumberland-Perry Drug & Alcohol Commission

Data plays a vital role in our ability to monitor and understand the health of our region. We regularly rely on the annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps to assess local health outcomes. These reports make it easy to examine changes in health risk behaviors, access to clinical care, quality of life and a range of other important factors. Our Cumberland County Health Trends Report  and Perry County Health Trends Report summarize over 50 health indicators that span from 2012 to 2021. Through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, new County Health Rankings are released every spring.

The Partnership for Better Health commissioned a report to combine Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) results in our service area from 2017, 2019, and 2021. Findings from this report were shared during a Youth-Serving Professionals Forum held in Carlisle on May 2, 2023. View the 2021 PAYS summary report, view presentation slides, or learn more about the forum.

PubMed “is a free resource that is developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It comprises over 20 million citations for biomedical literature. PubMed citations and abstracts include the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences.”

ERIC: Education Resources Information Center is “an online digital library of education research and information” sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed “to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research” and includes citations and summaries of published journal articles, reports and other documents. Some full-text articles are included.

Health-Evidence.ca “aims to support evidence-informed decision making in public health by providing current [international] research evidence in a searchable online” database.

MedlinePlus houses screened health information websites and online health tutorials from the National Library of Medicine in English and Spanish.

Healthfinder.gov is sponsored by the National Health Information Center and designed to provide information and tools to help individuals stay healthy.

Families USA is an advocacy group that provides tools and resources for healthcare consumers, including  assistance with insurance enrollment, comparisons of area hospitals and nursing homes, tools for coping with medical debt or fraud and more.

Healthy People 2030 provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. It establishes benchmarks and monitors progress over time in order to: “encourage collaborations across sectors; guide individuals toward making informed health decisions; measure the impact of prevention activities.”

Healthy People 2020 details the new 10-year national objectives released on December 2, 2010. The Healthy People 2020 Information Access Project provides structured PubMed searches for each Healthy People 2020 focus area. Click on the focus area of interest, then click on the PubMed Search icon.

Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce is “a collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations and health sciences libraries.”

Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health is offered by Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School.

MI-INFO: Informatics for the Public Health Workforce is a series of nine online tutorials on finding public health information.

CDC Guide to Community Preventive Services, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, is dedicated to answering questions such as: “Which program and policy interventions have been proven effective? Are there effective interventions that are right for my community? What might effective interventions cost; what is the likely return on investment?”

Model Practices Database from the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) is “an online, searchable collection of innovative best practices across public health areas.”

Promising Practices Network on Children, Families & Communities was created by the RAND Corporation. “The PPN website features summaries of programs and practices that are proven to improve outcomes for children. All of the information on the site has been screened for scientific rigor, relevance, and clarity.”

AHRQ Innovations Exchange is offered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “The Innovations Exchange supports the Agency’s mission to improve the quality of health care and reduce disparities.”

SAMSHA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices is “a searchable online registry of interventions supporting mental health promotion, substance abuse prevention, and mental health and substance abuse treatment.” It was developed by the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services.

Crime Solutions was created by the Office of Justice Programs and “uses rigorous research to determine what works in criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services.”

Through the Community Toolbox you can access a directory of additional free databases for finding best practices, compiled by the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas.