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March 2016 Convening, Chapel Hill, NC

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:

Facilitators:

  • DuPage County, IL; Sarah Troll
  • Franklin County, MA; Phoebe Walker
  • Schenectady, NY; Jessica Underhill

Track 2: Community and Partner Engagement

Panelists:

Facilitators:

  • Joplin, MO; Lisa Nelson
  • Manchester, NH; Tim Soucy
  • Shenandoah, PA; Kay Jones
  • Yakima County, WA; Jackie McPhee

Track 3: Communications

Panelists:

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 –

Boundary Spanning Leadership

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 –

The Message Box

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