Roadmaps to Health Action Awards Convenings
Action Awards Convening | March 2-3, 2016 | Chapel Hill, NC
This dynamic, interactive convening of Action Awards teams and other partners connected and empowered community leaders who are working to transform health in their communities. The convening provided opportunities for:
- Networking, collaborative learning and relationship building among community partners and other convening participants including representatives from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps Action Center and Healthy Places by Design;
- Identifying strategies to enhance and strengthen networks within each community;
- Learning about tools to develop measurement and evaluation, community and partner engagement, and communication strategies; and
- Sharing instructional and inspirational outcomes and stories of how local efforts to transform community health have been accelerated or advanced.
Convening Agenda and Resources
Presentation slides, resources and tools are hyperlinked within the agenda below.
Wednesday, March 2
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Julie Willems Van Dijk, Co-Director, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
Introductions: Who’s Who? That’s Me!
CHR&R Action Center and Healthy Places by Design
This high-energy session was designed to help participants identify people to connect with for shared learning and networking throughout the convening and beyond. Across the group, participants saw where there were affinity touch points, including who represented similar sectors and is working on similar issues. It was also a time to learn some fun facts about one another!
Session I: Connections and Collaborations
This first session quickly engaged participants in discussion and facilitation, and drew upon the wisdom, experience, skills and expertise of Action Awards team members. In each track, panelists of Action Awards team members who are working in the track topic discussed current work, shared key strategies and learnings, and set the stage for subsequent roundtable discussions to share and brainstorm around issues/challenges. Members of Action Awards teams also served as roundtable discussion facilitators for the three track sessions.
Track 1: Data, Measurement and Evaluation
Panelists:
- La Crosse County, WI; Catherine Kolkmeier - tools to support measurement and evaluation. Additional session materials included a Health Values Segmentation worksheet and a Health Survey Questionnaire
- Rancho Cucamonga, CA; Michael Parmer - strategic evaluation planning
- Springfield, MO; Jon Mooney - partnership models and impact processes
- Stamford, CT; Greg Kearns - cross-sector collaboration and shared measures
Facilitators:
- DuPage County, IL; Sarah Troll
- Franklin County, MA; Phoebe Walker
- Schenectady, NY; Jessica Underhill
Track 2: Community and Partner Engagement
Panelists:
- Flint, MI; Jennifer Burger - engaging school partners/systems
- Monadnock Region, NH; Linda Rubin - engaging business partners/sector
- Petersburg, VA; Maghboeba Mosavel - authentic community engagement
Facilitators:
- Joplin, MO; Lisa Nelson
- Manchester, NH; Tim Soucy
- Shenandoah, PA; Kay Jones
- Yakima County, WA; Jackie McPhee
Track 3: Communications
Panelists:
- Bithlo, FL: Timothy McKinney - garnering press attention and earned media
- Swanton, VT; Amy Brewer - branding multi-issue work
- Vicksburg, MS; Linda Fondren - grassroots and mainstream communication, using social media
Facilitators:
- Jefferson County, AL; Kadie Peters
- Kansas City, KS/MO; Lucinda Noches Talbert
- Linn County, IA; Stephanie Neff
Group Physical Activity and Networking
Options:
- Cardio Moves with Lori Jones, Joplin, MO Action Awards team
- Group walk led by Healthy Places by Design and CHR&R Action Center
- Group jog led by Healthy Places by Design and CHR&R Action Center
Dinner Buffet, Host Remarks and Networking
Risa Wilkerson, Executive Director, Healthy Places by Design
Conversation Starters Networking Tool
Wednesday, March 3
Group Physical Activity and Networking
Options:
- Cardio Moves with Lori Jones, Joplin, MO Action Awards team
- Group walk led by Healthy Places by Design and CHR&R Action Center
- Group jog led by Healthy Places by Design and CHR&R Action Center
Welcome Back from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Amy Slonim, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Session II: Expanding Networks and Moving to Action
The second session built on sharing and learning among Action Awards team members from Session I by presenting additional resources and tools, and providing deeper opportunities for networking and collaborative learning. Each session track began with a presentation of resources and tools. It set the stage for subsequent smaller group discussions around sub-topics of interest and hands-on practice using tools.
Track 1: Data, Measurement and Evaluation –
Metrics for Healthy Communities
Paul Mattessich, Executive Director, Wilder Research
The overall goal of this session was to enhance the skills of participants to identify ways to measure initial, intermediate and long-term outcomes of their initiatives. There was a special focus on initial and intermediate indicators which can serve to provide “mid-stream” feedback for initiatives whose goals will take a long time to achieve. Participants saw a live demonstration of the Metrics for Healthy Communities website which is located on MeasureUp, the Build Healthy Places Network. They learned how to access a variety of indicators, create a logic model to apply to their own initiatives, and brainstorm around best ways to use existing data tools to plan, monitor and improve their initiatives.
Track 2: Community and Partner Engagement –
Authentic Community Engagement, the Bedrock of Sustaining Effective Results
Sarita Turner, Associate Director, PolicyLink
Community members are best at identifying and developing equitable approaches that overcome challenges and that create healthy communities. Participants engaged in a thought-provoking, interactive session that addressed the benefits of authentic community and partner engagement, and offered tangible strategies and tools that support community input and decision-making. Partnerships, aligning strategies and resources, and community capacity-building all increase efforts to reduce health disparities and strengthen equity-based strategies for sustaining healthy communities. Participants received guidance to help foster these practices and identify important nuances that can undermine or support health equity. They also explored tools and strategies to help ensure ALL people have opportunities to live in health-supporting communities.
Additional session materials included a Community Engagement Guide and a Community Engagement Worksheet.
Track 3: Communications –
Story Catching and Storytelling for Impact
Sarah Moore, Communications and Marketing Manager, Healthy Places by Design
Joanne Lee, Collaborative Learning Director, Healthy Places by Design
Stories play an important role in keeping residents, partners and other stakeholders engaged and informed throughout a community’s journey toward health improvement. They can be particularly valuable for lifting up intermediate progress before longer-term outcomes can be captured. In this session, participants engaged in fun exchanges to apply lessons about the elements of a good story and strategies to develop and deliver them with impact. Participants also had the opportunity to test messages and stories through mock interviews, print and social media formats.
Additional session materials included a Storytelling Reference Sheet.
Session III: Expanding Networks and Moving to Action
The third session built on sharing and learning among Action Awards team members from Sessions I and II by presenting additional resources and tools, and providing deeper opportunities for networking and collaborative learning. Each session track began with a presentation of resources and tools. It set the stage for subsequent smaller group discussions around sub-topics of interest and hands-on practice using tools.
Track 1: Data, Measurement and Evaluation – Community Commons, A Platform to Support Community Health
Jamie Kleinsorge, Project Director, Institute for People, Place, and Possibility (IP3)
Community Commons was created to help increase the impact of those working toward healthy, equitable and sustainable communities. The site provides public access to data, tools, stories, mapping and reporting capabilities to explore community health—from neighborhood to state levels. Session participants received guidance as they explored key components of Community Commons, including accessing the robust database and mapping capabilities, creating comprehensive or tailored Community Health Needs Assessments, identifying where the most vulnerable populations live in a community, and describing how state and local leaders are working together through Community Commons Hubs.
Session materials included How to Make a Map and Creating a Report.
Track 2: Community and Partner Engagement –
Lynn Fick-Cooper, Senior Faculty, Center for Creative Leadership
Boundary spanning leadership is the process of creating direction, alignment and commitment across boundaries in service of a shared vision or goal. In this session, participants explored the Boundary Spanning Leadership Toolkit which provides step-by-step instructions for leaders who must work across boundaries and bring groups together to find solutions to complex challenges. It is designed to be used in a wide variety of contexts and across sectors including business, community, nonprofit, educational, government and youth leadership.
Track 3: Communications –
Jan O’Neill, Community Coach, CHR&R Action Center
Jerry Spegman, Community Coach, CHR&R Action Center
The Message Box was developed by Spitfire Strategies to help design communications strategies to persuade people to take an action that moves toward a shared goal. Participants learned when to use the tool, steps for developing a message, and tips to keep in mind. There was also an opportunity to practice developing a Message Box, using a personal community experience or a hypothetical example.
Lunch and Action Steps: Continuing the Journey to Transform Community Health
Community teams reconvened and reflected on individual and collective learnings, as well as connections from the convening. Each team identified key learnings, future networking opportunities and steps they will act on for greater impact in transforming health in their communities.
Team Sharing: Reflections and Action Commitments
In this closing session, community teams shared reflections, learnings and next steps on their journeys to transform community health. The cross-site sharing and engagement were designed to enable participants to engage in future collaborative learning and networking opportunities.
Next Steps
Joanne Lee, Collaborative Learning Director, Healthy Places by Design
Closing Remarks
Amy Slonim, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation