SNAP-Ed Community PSE Exploration Initiative

Michigan Fitness Foundation

2019–Present

State

Overview

The Michigan Fitness Foundation’s (MFF) SNAP-Ed collaborative of statewide partners focuses on improving the health of Michigan’s most vulnerable citizens, including children, seniors, families, and communities in crisis. SNAP-Ed programs develop community leaders and enable residents to gain knowledge and access resources that improve opportunities to eat healthy food and be physically active. To complement traditional direct education work, SNAP-Ed partners conduct in-depth explorations of community-level policies, systems, and environments (PSE) and develop deeper organizational capacity to address root causes of health inequities.

Our Support

Healthy Places by Design serves MFF as a strategic thought partner and consultant to its staff and SNAP-Ed partners, providing expertise on emergent learning, ongoing support structures, and network building. Drawing from our Community Action Model, we have enabled SNAP-Ed partners to frame their analyses around their communities’ unique culture, assets, infrastructure, history of achievement, and challenges.

Specific services that Healthy Places by Design has provided include:

• Conducting partner listening sessions, synthesizing themes, and sharing recommendations;
• Designing and facilitating regular peer learning calls to strengthen network ties and build capacity for PSE-based approaches;
• Developing specific guidance documents, curated resources, and final report templates;
• Delivering keynote and plenary session presentations for statewide conference; and
• Working with MFF staff to hone their services for greater impact.