SACCHO Overview

Overview: How SACCHOs Serve Local Health Departments

Donna Brown, MPH, JD, Government Affairs Counsel

State Associations of County and City Health Officials, or "SACCHOs," as they have come to be known, are statewide organizations of local health departments and the people who work in them. Some have been around as long as or longer than NACCHO. There are 33 such organizations in 29 states (California has three and Illinois has two) and they are as diverse as the states they serve. Their membership comprises as few as seven local health departments (Idaho, which has a regional structure) to as many as 143 (Texas) and 350 (Massachusetts).

NACCHO surveyed the SACCHOs in the autumn of 2005 and received responses from 22. Of these, 17 SACCHOs reported that they have paid staff or a contractor to assist in their work, while the others rely exclusively on volunteer efforts by their members and elected officers. Reported annual budgets ranged from $9,000 to $1 million. The most common sources of revenue are profits from SACCHO-organized conferences and grants or contracts with state health departments.

Despite the similarity in acronyms, SACCHOs have no mandatory formal relationship to NACCHO. Their governance is completely independent. However, 17 SACCHOs have entered into Memoranda of Understanding with NACCHO whereby the SACCHO works with NACCHO to develop a greater understanding of local public health departments in their state and promote NACCHO membership. In return the SACCHO receives registrations to NACCHO's annual conference and rebates or discounts on NACCHO membership.

Excerpt from Together We Are a Force: SACCHO's Serve Local Health Departments in 29 States. NACCHO Exchange, Vol. 6, Issue 2.

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