Global to Local Program

Why Global to Local? 

Impactful health initiatives transcend boundaries. The Global to Local (G2L) strategy adapts successful health program models from around the world to meet the needs of Washington’s communities. G2L includes public health programs focused on globally connected communities in Washington, such as immigrant and refugee populations. 

How the Global to Local Approach Works

G2L is a way of looking at successful evidence-based strategies and models from around the world and making them fit the needs of Washington communities. The G2L framework is built on the following core principles: 

  • Community Interconnectedness: Globally connected communities contribute significantly to Washington's workforce and social fabric. These communities face unique challenges in accessing public health services. 
  • Cost-Saving, Efficient Innovations: Using proven strategies from low-resource settings can address complex local challenges, while enhancing services and reducing costs. For example, community health worker (CHW) programs and digital health tools are proven, efficient strategies to meet community health needs. 
  • Locally Tailored Approaches: Collaborating with local partners ensures solutions are adapted to the cultural and social contexts of communities, focusing on their needs and strengths. 
  • Bidirectional Learning: Local successes and challenges inform global evidence-based strategies, creating a continuous flow of shared insights and innovation. 

Partnerships and Collaboration

The cornerstone of our work is strong partnerships. We exchange public health insights and practices with partners to address the distinct needs of Washington’s diverse communities. Partner organizations include: 

Local Health Jurisdictions 

  • Benton-Franklin Health District 
  • Grays Harbor County Public Health 
  • Island County Public Health 
  • Kitsap County Public Health 
  • Kittitas County Health Department 
  • Public Health – Seattle & King County 
  • Snohomish County Health Department 
  • Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department 
  • Whatcom County Public Health 

Tribal Organizations 

  • American Indian Health Commission 

Community-Based Organizations 

  • Community Health Worker Coalition for Migrants and Refugees 
  • Ethiopian Community in Seattle 
  • Nashi Immigrants Health Board 
  • Pacific Islander Community Association of Washington 
  • Somali Health Board 
  • Vietnamese Health Board 

Global to Local Projects

Global to Local Learning: Advancing Perinatal Care in Rural Areas 

We partnered with the global health nonprofit PATH to identify promising approaches to improve perinatal care access and quality in rural Washington. To do this, the team conducted a rapid scoping review to learn from approaches used in rural communities around the world. The review is summarized in a peer-reviewed publication titled “Increasing access to perinatal care in rural settings: A Washington State global to local scoping review” in the journal Social Science & Medicine – Health Systems.   

This work aligns with the Maternal Mortality Review Panel. The panel is a multidisciplinary group overseen by DOH that operates under the state's Maternal Mortality Review Law (RCW 70.54.450). The purpose of the panel is to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce preventable maternal mortality in Washington. For more information, please contact Cindil Redick-Ponte or Caroline Sedano. 

Supporting Community Health Workers

The “Together for Health” Community Health Worker Vaccine Confidence Toolkit is an integrated, culturally responsive communications toolkit to strengthen community health workers' (CHWs) capacity to build vaccine confidence in the communities they serve. The toolkit includes tip sheets, conversation guides, job aids, and CHW testimonials. materials were culturally adapted and translated into nine priority languages. Materials address misinformation, trust-building, peer learning, and vaccine confidence, and are designed for flexible use across diverse community settings. The Community Health Worker Training Program has an Immunizations Across the Lifespan training module that incorporates the Together for Health toolkit, supporting CHWs to build their skills for vaccine communications. 

Digital Health Innovations in Support of Community-Based Services

Community health workers (CHWs) are trusted messengers and are becoming more important to digital outreach. The G2L program conducted an assessment to explore how a digital tool for CHWs could strengthen maternal and early childhood immunization education in Washington.

The assessment included information from:

  • A review of Washington's CHW workforce and digital health landscape.
  • Key informant interviews and focus groups with CHWs.
  • A statewide CHW survey of 100 respondents.
  • DOH program teams and technical partners.

The feasibility assessment, Strengthening Maternal and Childhood Immunization Through CHW-Centered Digital Tools: A Feasibility Assessment for Washington State (PDF), indicated that a digital tool is feasible if the tool is simple, multilingual, low-bandwidth, privacy-preserving, and co-created with CHWs. The assessment also revealed a potential obstacle: the uncertainty of funding. If one program is responsible for managing a digital tool and then loses program funding, the tool may not be sustainable.

Following the feasibility assessment, we pursued a decentralized, learning-oriented approach. We provided seed funding to four Local Health Jurisdictions (LHJs) and one Tribal partner to design and pilot CHW-centered digital innovations grounded in local community needs and workflows. Case studies describe their digital innovation projects are available. For more information, please contact Morgan Hartline.

Covid-19 Health Education and Promotion with Globally Connected Communities

One goal of the G2L program is to strengthen culturally responsive COVID-19 and broader health education among immigrant, refugee, and other globally connected communities. The G2L Program and the Office of Communications & Health Education (OCHE) partnered with local health jurisdictions (LHJs), Tribal partners, and community-based organizations (CBOs) through two complementary mechanisms: LHJ-led subcontracting and direct DOH contracts with seven CBOs.

Partner organizations contributed by:

  • Leading community-driven outreach.
  • Co-creating culturally and linguistically tailored materials.
  • Hosting vaccination and health literacy events.
  • Conducting tailored social media campaigns.
  • Providing cultural reviews of doh materials. 

This work reached diverse communities across Washington State through trusted messengers, with content adapted to community-specific languages, cultural contexts, and communication preferences. For more information, please contact Ekaterina Teterina.

Community-Based Health Education for Measles Prevention

In response to a surge in measles cases in Washington in early 2026, the G2L Program led a measles prevention community-based social marketing campaign for globally connected communities. The campaign focused on:

  • Increasing MMR vaccine awareness and uptake.
  • Improving recognition of measles signs and symptoms.
  • Educating on when and how to seek care.
  • Encouraging isolation and quarantine to reduce spread.

With in-language media messaging and health education and outreach led by community-based organizations, the campaign reached communities that speak English, Marshallese, Somali, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian.  G2L measles prevention resources are available as part of the DOH Measles Communication Toolkit.  For more information, please contact Phillip Wiltzius.

Enhancing Readiness for Global Disease Threats: Zoonotic Disease Dashboard

The G2L strategy recognizes that disease threats cross boundaries and that the health of people, animals, and the environment are interconnected. The G2L program supported development of data dashboard for surveillance of zoonotic and vector-borne disease threats. This interactive tool provides detailed information on reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths associated with various zoonotic conditions. Users can explore the data by county of exposure, county of residence, demographics, and time trends. In addition to human health data, the dashboard includes information on animals tested for rabies, including testing location, ownership status, vaccination status, and temporal patterns. For more information, please contact Mary Chan or Hanna Oltean.