Projects

Home

Projects

YMCA of the USA’s Healthier Communities Initiatives (HCI)

http://www.ymca.net/healthier-communities/

Together, the nation’s 2,594 YMCA’s are the largest not-for-profit community service organization in America, working to meet the health and human service needs of over 20 million men, women and children in 10,000 communities in the United States. Y-USA’s Healthier Communities Initiatives engage community leaders, convened by local YMCA’s, in policy and environmental change efforts that support and promote healthy lifestyles. In addition, these initiatives empower local communities with proven strategies and models to create and sustain positive, lasting change for healthy living. Through its three programs – Pioneering Healthier Communities (PHC), Statewide Pioneering Healthier Communities (SPHC) and ACHIEVE– nearly 200 Ys are working in collaboration with community leaders to make changes in policies and the physical surroundings in those communities so that healthy living is within reach for individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

Community Initiatives has worked closely with Y-USA staff for over four years. CI’s role has continued to evolve to meet the changing needs and circumstances of the HCI communities and network, including:

Acting as strategic advisors in the design phase of the initiative;
Helping design and lead national learning events;
Coaching local sites in developing teams, building leadership capacity and creating collaborative processes that get both short and long-term results;
Documenting effective practices emerging from HCI communities;
Developing training and support materials for Y-USA’s GIS Mapping and Reporting tool; and
Supporting peer-learning and coaching strategies.

Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and Environmental Change (ACHIEVE)

http://www.achievecommunities.org/Pages/default.aspx

Through ACHIEVE, an initiative sponsored by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), communities develop and implement needed health-related policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that help prevent or manage health risk factors for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity and arthritis. The total number of communities engaged in ACHIEVE nationally has grown to 134. ACHIEVE helps to build healthy communities and eliminate health disparities by building and disseminating tools, models, activities, and strategies for collaborating with a broad cross-section of partners. Specific activities are directed toward reducing tobacco use and exposure, promoting physical activity and healthy eating, and improving access to consistent, high-quality preventive health services.

The CDC partners with 4 key national organizations to select and provide technical assistance to communities. The national organizations include the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, The National Recreation and Parks Association, and the YMCA of the USA.

Community Initiatives has worked closely with the national partners in roles that include:

Serving as a strategic advisor for the development of the pilot model;
Helping design and lead national learning events;
Coaching and facilitating national partner strategy sessions;
Coaching local sites in building leadership and creating change strategies and collaborative processes that get both short and long-term results;
Helping design and deliver technical assistance at Coaches Meetings and the Action Institutes; and
Supporting peer learning throughout the national ACHIEVE network.

Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW)

CPPW is a comprehensive prevention and wellness initiative funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; it is an unprecedented investment in community health and well being. Through a highly competitive process, the CDC awarded grants of nearly $400 million to 44 communities for public health efforts to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, reduce obesity, and decrease tobacco use and exposure—four critical actions targeted to combat chronic disease and promote health. Through implementing evidence- and practice-based approaches in policy, systems, and environmental change, CDC’s CPPW program aims to achieve broad reaching, highly impactful, and sustainable change that reduces chronic disease morbidity and mortality associated with obesity and tobacco use.

http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/recovery/

As leading technical assistance provider with ICF Macro, CI’s role in CPPW includes:

Serving as a strategic advisor to senior CPPW leaders;
Helping design and lead national CPPW Action Institutes and training events;
Providing technical assistance and coaching to CPPW communities in developing and implementing policies and environmental changes;
Providing training and coaching in the areas of effective coalition development and sustainability
Creating structures and processes for effective peer learning; and
Providing technical assistance to CPPW communities in evaluating milestones and outcomes.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) – Childhood Obesity Prevention GIS Project

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with University of Missouri’s Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems (CARES) to design and build a user-friendly, widely accessible geographic information system (GIS) infrastructure as a tool for grantees of RWJF, advocates, community leaders, policy-makers, public health practitioners, researchers, and the general public. The tool is designed to integrate evidence, action and advocacy strategies to achieve the greatest impact in reversing the childhood obesity epidemic.

http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/

Community Initiatives is partnering with CARES and Practicable Legacy Strategies (PLS) in roles that include:

Helping enhance the design and usability of the tool through work with targeted end users;
Developing and implementing training to maximize both use of the tool and desired results for National Partner Organizations (NPO), grantees and the general public; and
Developing tools and strategies that support integrated and ongoing peer learning across grantees and NPOs

Missouri Association for Community Action (MACA)

MACA is a statewide association of 19 community action agencies fighting poverty in every county in Missouri. Community action agencies provide critical services to strengthen families and communities. The MACA mission statement reads, “United in purpose, the Missouri Community Action Network will inspire and engage people to ensure that all families and communities have full opportunity to thrive.” MACA supports their mission through advocacy, training, awareness, technical assistance, and resource development.

http://communityaction.org/

Community Initiatives role includes:

Helping train MACA leaders to effectively use a new web-based Needs Assessment Reporting System—developed by the CARES team—to make meaning of data and enhance local planning;
Helping design and facilitate network learning sessions and training events, and
Providing technical assistance in the areas of strategic planning and community needs assessments.

The Education Network For the Advancement of Cancer Clinical Trials (ENACCT)

http://enacct.org

ENACCT’s mission is to identify, implement and validate innovative community centered approaches to cancer clinical trials education. The primary program, funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation www.livestrong.org ,was created to demonstrate how a community-driven outreach and education program can increase awareness about cancer clinical trials, enhance their acceptability and improve access to them—particularly among minority and underserved communities.

Community Initiatives consults the national staff on organizational strategy and provides coaching and technical assistance to three unique community-based coalitions in Tacoma, WA, Boston, MA and Decatur, IL. CI’s role includes supporting peer-learning, developing policy approaches to overcome clinical trial barriers, and sustainability planning.

The PedNet Coalition

http://www.pednet.org

The Mission of the PedNet Coalition of Columbia, MO is to encourage active travel such as walking, bicycling, and rolling a wheelchair, and to promote the creation of a safe and attractive network of paths, trails and multi-modal streets that provides health, environmental, quality-of-life, and economic benefits to the community. The PedNet Coalition was chosen to participate in the Active Living by Design Initiative and was selected for the first round of the Robert Woods Johnson Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Healthy Kids Healthy Community” grant program. In addition, PedNet has earned a national reputation as a leader in active living and through its Safe Routes to Schools/Walking School Bus Programs.

A Community Initiatives team member works with senior staff and the board to help develop an effective approach to board governance and strategic planning.

Healthy Communities of Brownsville, TX

www.healthybrownsville.org

Healthy Communities of Brownsville (HCB) is a non-profit grassroots community organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the citizens of Brownsville. The more than 100 founding members came from neighborhoods, churches, businesses, educational institutions, healthcare entities, government agencies and other community groups. The concern and dedication of these Brownsville citizens led to the establishment of a broad-based, collaborative and dynamic organization. This action-oriented organization and network focuses on improvements in education, health/well-being and the environment.

Community Initiatives worked with the initial team who framed and initiated the 10 month planning process that led to the development of HCB. CI also facilitated the series community-wide meetings and assisted in the development of a sustainable organization, including governance structure.

University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture

http://www.uvm.edu/~susagctr/

The mission of the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture is to cultivate understanding and innovative practices and policies that advance sustainable food and farming in VT and beyond. To update its focus and enhance its efforts, the Center engaged in a strategic learning and planning process.

Community Initiatives provided process design and facilitation support for the Center’s strategic planning process, including coaching on the organizational culture and decision processes that would be supportive for effective implementation of the proposed plan.