About County of Santa Clara Public Health Department

The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department’s mission is to protect and improve the health and well-being of our community. We work to prevent disease and injury, promote healthy lifestyles, create healthy environments, use data to inform decision-making, and advocate for policy and systems changes that advance racial and health equity. We care deeply about our mission and work daily across the Department and with our partners to achieve our vision for all people to thrive in healthy and safe communities. 

Our vision rests largely on understanding social determinants of health, like: 

• Access to high-quality education 

• Income and wealth  

• The environment  

• Language and literacy skills 

These determine access to safe and healthy housing, neighborhoods, green spaces, transportation, nutritious foods, affordable health care, and social and emotional support and inclusion.  

Historical legacies, structures, and systems continue to drive inequalities and exclude many groups, especially people of color, from full and equitable access to these fundamental building blocks for health. Meaningful progress will require a shift towards addressing the inequitable allocation of resources and opportunities within and across our communities.  

Our mission

To protect and improve the health and well-being of our community.

Our vision

All people thrive in healthy and safe communities

Our core values

• Equity:  We integrate strategies into our work that address injustices and structural inequities to eliminate health disparities and increase protective factors.

• Diversity and collaboration: We commit to diversity, inclusion, belonging, and community partnership in all that we do.

• Accountability: We value bidirectional partnerships to hold us accountable for effective, evidence-based, and community-responsive work. 

• Integrity: We build trust through open, honest, and transparent communication and by staying true to our commitments.

• Impact: We use scientific evidence and best practices to ensure positive impact for our communities.

Our commitment to excellence

The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department is proud to have earned national accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation Board in March 2016. Accreditation means that we have demonstrated our commitment to promoting and protecting the health of the public by continuously improving the quality of our services and the performance of our work. We successfully demonstrated our performance against 32 nationally recognized, practice-focused and evidence-based standards across 12 public health domains.

The Public Health Department has a strong focus on quality improvement:

• We care that our messages and services are understood by all, so we offer language assistance at all locations.
• We ensure excellent customer service by regularly gathering client and partner feedback to identify areas for improvement. If you have feedback, please let us know.
• We have internal quality teams that continuously work on making services highly efficient and effective for the residents of Santa Clara County.
• We prioritize racial and health equity as a foundational goal for everything we do. From infant mortality to life expectancy, race too often predicts health outcomes. To close the gaps in health disparities and improve outcomes for all, we must address the underlying systemic and institutional biases that allow these inequities to persist.

Our budget

Learn more about the budget of the Public Health Department and the County.​​​

Strategic Plan 

Read the Strategic Plan for 2023-2026 to learn how we will be prioritizing our work in the next three years to achieve our goals.