Kate Lolley, Rebecca Hayes and Judy LaPan developed a process to improve community quality of life through cross-organizational collaboration in their county. They utilized the MAPP process to conduct community assessments and develop a steering committee of local leaders. This helped partner public health and planning to create a county strategic plan and growth policy. They developed a social health index to evaluate progress and coordinated annual community conferences. This integrated public health into new discussions and created an active community ready for change.

1. From Surviving to Thriving: Focusing on Community Quality of Life for Cross-Organizational Collaboration Kate Lolley, Rebecca Hayes and Judy LaPan MS, MBA Methods Preliminary Work : Identified resources like AmeriCorps*VISTA program to carry out the work. VISTA volunteer sites helped create organizational buy-in to the community building process. Processes Utilized : Utilized the Mobilizing Action through Partnership and Planning (MAPP) process. Assessments Conducted : Eight MAPP assessments, National Public Health Performance Standards Assessment, Health Status Assessment, an outsourced Telephone Survey, and Senior Citizen Physical Activity Assessment. Community Partners Developed : Developed a Steering Committee from local leaders representing diverse community organizations. Buy-in from county public works lead to partnering on the County Growth Policy. Connected Public Health and Planning: Partnered with the County Planning committee for simultaneous development of the Health Department’s County Strategic Plan of their development of the Growth Policy Evaluation Tool Developed: Developed a Social Health Index to evaluate progress made through the County Growth Policy and County Strategic Plan Results Coordinated the efforts of many community groups and individual Integrated community building process into an annual community conference, paid for by the county. Public health is included in discussions they hadn’t been before Created a community that is moved to action and ready for change Action groups accomplishments Barriers Cross-Organizational Divisions: Long-standing politics between organizations can prevent players you want from coming to the table. Each partner also has a different “language”. Planning vs. Reacting: It’s difficult for people to become proactive rather then reactive especially when there is limited resources. “ Traditional” Public Health Paradigm : External and internal Lessons Learned Organizational Readiness: Make sure that your organization ready and remember to be persistent. Neutral Party: Use a neutral party like the AmeriCorps*VISTA program is key to facilitate discussions between groups and to complete groundwork Finding Community Buy-in : Buy-in does not come from one source and it can come from unexpected places, so don’t discount groups because you feel they’re not ‘connected’ Cross-Organizational Tie-In: Place VISTA volunteers in multi-site clusters to have organizations work with and off each other. ‘Translate’ your organization’s language to be compatible with partners Future Applications Expanding the Process : Expanding regionally to engage surrounding counties in the community building process and adding new partners. Terminology: Using similar terminology between organizations Policy: Building a comprehensive, coordinated method for policy makers to gather input from the community. Effective Resource Utilization : Utilize decision making mechanisms for utilizing resources in the most effective manner.