Healthiest Cities & Counties Challenge Toolkit
Author
Blaire Bryant
Upcoming Events
Related News
Get Started! |
Include Community Voices |
Early engagement of community leaders and stakeholders is important, strengthening interest for a community health initiative. Research suggests early community engagement can improve user satisfaction and lead to more appropriate programming. Soliciting an array of stakeholder perspectives to weigh in on development of a new health program can be the difference between strong community support for the initiative and community resistance. Strong stakeholder engagement also harnesses the skills and talents of a communities most important resource: its people. Community involvement fosters trust, investment, and can ultimately sustain a project. Resources
|
Advance Health Equity |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines health equity as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people regardless of skin color, education level, gender identity, sexual orientation, employment status, location, or disability. Improved health equity also contributes to more efficient health programming, better use of limited county resources, and improved public health outcomes. Resources
|
Address Social Determinants of Health |
Individual and community health is determined by an array of social determinants of health, which are defined by the Kaiser Family Foundation as “the structural determinants and conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.” The role that any specific social determinant serves to directly advance a health outcome varies by individual, but when aggregated these factors correlate to health-related behaviors and accompanying health outcomes for communities. Any new community health program should propose improving upon at least one individual social determinant to health:
Resources
|
Evaluate Community Needs and Resources
Before investing resources into a new community health initiative, it is important to understand the community’s specific health needs. A community need or resource assessment can assume different forms. Health priorities should come from both a formal and informal assessment of a county’s existing health needs. Having a good understanding of community needs directs the goals and strategies of the initiative.
Guidelines & Practical Worksheets
Identifying the Problem
- Five Whys Worksheet
Stratis Health- Health Problem Analysis Worksheet
Department of Energy, Office of Science- Assets for Community Health Needs Assessments
American Hospital Association- Community Needs Assessment Workbook
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention- A Health Impact Assessment Toolkit
Map County Assets
Develop a Strategic Plan
- Logic Model Workbook
Innovation Network- How to Create a Logic Model
The Pell Institute Evaluation Toolkit- Developing a Community Health Improvement Plan
- CHIP Collaborative Handbook
- Strategic Planning Tip Sheet
- Worksheet for Reviewing Your Strategic Plan
Identify the Problem |
Community Health Needs AssessmentCommunity health assessments (CHAs) are an evaluative model to identify and analyze community health needs and assets, prioritize those needs and then implement a plan to address areas meriting improvement. Health Impact AssessmentsA health impact assessment evaluates potential health effects of a proposed policy, plan, program or project before it is built or implemented.Findings from health impact assessments provide practical recommendations to increase positive health effects and minimize negative health effects. Resources
|
Map County Assets |
A county should map its assets and identify gaps impacting a proposed community health policy initiative before undertaking any programmatic implementation. Mapping assets can offer information on strengths and existing resources in the county. A strong understanding of available resources will help to leverage existing assets. Read More about County Asset Mapping
|
Develop a Strategic Plan |
A strategic plan should succinctly capture the vision, mission, objectives and strategies to be enacted. Developing a strategic plan in a collaborative group setting will build consensus and strengthen buy-in for the initiative. Revisit the plan often while moving into new phases of the initiative. Below are examples of two tools that can aid you in developing a strategic plan for your initiative. Logic ModelsLogic Models provide programmatic roadmap for an initiative, highlighting goal sequence and desired outcomes. Community Health Improvement PlansThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define a community health improvement plan (CHIP) as a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems based on the results of a community health assessment. CHIP is essential to the development of policies and defining targeted actions to promote community health. A robust CHIP should define a vision for the health of the community through a collaborative process, while addressing a range of strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities that exist to improve health in the community. Read More about Logic Models and Community Health Improvement Plans
|
Create and Maintain Effective Partnerships
A healthy community ensures that appropriate partners collaborate for community improvement. A critical component of partnerships involves engaging residents and organizations that represent different parts of your community. Agencies within a county and organizations and businesses within a community often find that they have overlapping goals and that working together increases financial resources, strengthens the community and helps all to achieve their missions.
Guidelines & Practical Worksheets
- Partner Finder
Build Healthy Places Network- Technical Assistance: A Roadmap to Develop Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing Initiatives
Center for Sharing Public Health Services- Developing Effective Coalitions: An Eight Step Guide
Prevention Institute- Steps to Building Partnerships Worksheet
Eat Play Grow- Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet
Office for Coastal Management- Memorandum of Understanding
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps
Network Building and Cross-Sector Collaboration |
Read more about Network Building and Cross-Sector Collaboration:
|
Commit to Shared Goals and Outcomes |
A commitment to realizing goals and outcomes is the basis for collaboration. Shared definitions are helpful for determining if a collaboration is achieving its purposes and goals. Collaborators should identify how they will define success and what data indicators will measure success. Read More about Shared Goals and Outcomes
|
Formalize Partnerships |
Partnerships can assume many forms and reflect varying levels of formality. Community partnerships can be formalized through the creation of a council responsible for ensuring appropriate action is taken to implement programs. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) offers another way to formalize a community collaboration. Partnerships can benefit from formalized agreements, although long-standing partners often do not need a formal document to delineate roles. Below are resources and examples of formal partnerships using both MOUs and councils to guide activities. Read More about Formalizing Partnerships
|
Use and Assess Data
Data is an essential component of a community’s plan to implement successful health programming. Data helps identify opportunities, prioritize need, target initiatives, make mid-stream course-corrections and evaluate progress. Effective use of data can increase accountability and ultimately lead to more strategic investments. While data can enhance planning and decision-making processes, communities often find data collection challenging. Many communities are becoming increasingly informed about how to overcome data barriers and challenges, particularly on matters of data sources privacy.
Different communities have different abilities to collect data. While some communities possess sophisticated digital systems, others collect data through hand-distributed paper surveys. All data-collection methods are helpful.
Guidelines & Practical Worksheets
- NACo County Explorer
National Association of Counties- Healthiest Communities Rankings
World Report & U.S. News- County Health Ranking and Roadmaps
National Association of Counties- Data Collection Plan Worksheet
Strengthening Non-profits
Read More about Data Use & Assessment |
|
Engage Local Elected Officials and Key Stakeholders
Participation of local elected officials is vital to the success of any municipal initiative, often offering an opportunity for programmatic endorsement, budgetary support, and enhanced public engagement. Elected officials are well positioned to convene key stakeholders and cultivate strategic alliances among them. Developing the early interest and buy-in of an elected official can give rise to a more visible, public champion for a cause, as well as a wider awareness of, and support for, a community effort. Engagement of local elected officials should begin at the planning stage of a community health initiative—the earlier, the better—to permit their ideas, experience, and network to inform development of a new program.
Guidelines & Practical Worksheets
- Strategic Visioning for Community and Economic Development: Keys to Engaging Stakeholders
National Association of Counties- How to Effectively Engage Your Elected Officials
ReThink Media- Engage with Your Elected Officials
Health Action Network
How to Engage Local Elected Officials |
Initial opportunities for engagement include writing a pitch for a proposed community health program and sharing it with a lawmaker’s staff for input. Briefing staff through educational emails, calls, and office visits offers an opportunity to foster working relationships with the individuals most likely to be involved in a project on behalf of an elected official.Writing an article or opinion piece for a local newspaper, highlighting key aspects of the initiative, is another effective means to engage policymakers. Social media provides a unique platform to publicly engage a lawmaker in a dialogue about a community health initiative, offering an opportunity to extend open thanks to a lawmaker and demonstrate broad constituent endorsement of an initiative. Once an initiative is underway, maintaining the engagement of the elected official should include inviting him or her to speak at program events, as well as participate in onsite programmatic visits, particularly if a photo opportunity or news piece can be created. Read More about How to Engage Elected Officials
|
How to Improve Constituent Engagement as an Elected Official |
An elected official often assumes a visible leadership role in a community health program to lend credibility and public trust to the project. A community health initiative offers more than an opportunity to enhance constituent quality of life; it presents a means by which a municipality can secure additional state and federal resources. Strong, visible leadership for a county health initiative should include: setting a balanced and optimistic tone in local conversations; convening community leaders and key stakeholders throughout all stages of an initiative; educating state and federal partners; advocating to state, federal, and other partners for additional funding resources; serving as a champion of the initiative by attending and speaking at events for the community’s health program. Read More about Engaging with Your Constituents as an Elected Official
|
County Examples
|