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Thriving Together: A Springboard for Equitable Recover & Resilience in Communities Across America

This SPRINGBOARD is designed to help us open a new chapter in America’s quest for well-being and justice—to propel a movement that will match the high stakes of this legacy moment. The guiding framework used in this Springboard does not tell us what to do or how to act. It simply organizes the things that all people and places need in order to thrive. Download

Thriving Campuses: A Campus Guide for Well-Being, Equity and Thriving Together

Thriving Campuses: A Campus Guide for Well-Being, Equity and Thriving Together aims to help stakeholders advance a vision for thriving on their campuses and see their role as stewards across a set of vital campus conditions.It offers a starting point for campus stakeholders looking to advance equitable well-being by connecting users with information and tools for cultivating shared stewardship, responding to COVID-19, and co-creating new legacies of dignity and inclusion.

Shared Stewardship in Health Care: Transformational Practices for Thriving Together

Health Care Stewardship: The Health Care Guide for Well-Being, Equity, and Thriving aims to help all members of the health care workforce act as leaders to ensure all people can reach their full potential. The guide introduces the concept of stewardship and the Vital Conditions for Well-Being and outlines specific practices for health care.


Tools

Dialogue Guide: Economic Renewal

Our economic life encompasses more than jobs, businesses, and financial institutions. It is an expression of what we value, who we value, and how we work together. In this conversation, we explore what quality of economic life could look like for you and your community. Download

Dialogue Guide: Civic Renewal

Civic life encompasses the infinite ways that people may connect and contribute to their community and society. We have a chance now to embrace our interdependence and to create just and productive communities. This conversation is an opportunity to reimagine our civic life. Download

Dialogue Guide: Social, Emotional & Spiritual Renewal for Youth

When we talk about renewing our social, emotional and spiritual life, we are really talking about what we think about ourselves, how we connect with our family and friends, and if we feel like we belong. This conversation guide helps you consider your personal experiences, how you can support others, and what kind of impact we can have on a community. Download

Dialogue Guide: Social, Emotional & Spiritual Renewal for Adults

Our social, emotional, and spiritual life is tied to how we understand ourselves, relate to others, and experience belonging and purpose. In this conversation, you are invited to consider your own experiences, name what has helped you to develop resilience, and dream up what could be possible in our communities moving forward. Download

Dialogue Guide: Life in the Time of Coronavirus

Living Room Conversations offers a simple, sociable, and structured way to practice communicating across differences while building understanding and relationships. Rather than debating or convincing others, we take turns talking to share and learn. Engaging in conversation and dialogue allows us to create shared meaning, deepen relationships, and move toward collective action. This guide offers a starting point for reflecting on the personal and community impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Download

Communities WIN: A Community Guide for Dialogue and Action

Community Initiatives, in partnership with IP3, created Communities WIN as a community guide for dialogue and action. It is designed to help local leaders, as stewards, work together with others to transform their community systems and expand opportunities for all people to thrive. Download

Leading and Sustaining Place-Based Healthier Community Efforts 

Community Initiatives developed this self-assessment tool to provide individuals and partners of local healthier community coalitions an opportunity to (1) understand the coalition’s current capacity and effectiveness and (2) identify some key ways to improve the coalition’s long-term effectiveness and sustainability. Download

The Weight of the Nation For Kids 

Community Initiatives, Kaiser Permanente, the Community Commons, and HBO teamed up a second time to create a Screening to Action: Quickstart Guide to addresses childhood obesity and its causes. The tools in this guide will help you host a screening event for the three-part film series The Weight of the Nation for Kids. Download

The Weight of the Nation 

Community Initiatives, Kaiser Permanente, Community Commons and HBO created this Screening to Action: Quickstart Guide to spark action to address obesity and its root causes. This guide contains the information you need to plan and host a Screen to Action event. Download

National Recreation and Parks Association Park Equity and Access Dialogue Guide

This tool is designed to help local parks and recreation agencies play a leadership role in bringing together diverse groups working toward creating healthy, vibrant communities through improving community parks and recreational systems. Download

Trail Systems and Healthy Communities Dialogue Guide 

Creating or improving local trail systems can improve the health of a community. This guide helps local parks and recreation agencies play a leadership role in convening diverse groups interested in creating or improving a local trail system. Download

Joint Use Dialogue Guide 

Joint use agreements can be an important strategy for creating a healthy community. This tool is designed to help local parks and recreation organizations lead a discussion among diverse stakeholders to address the potential of a joint use agreement. Download

The Built Environment Dialogue Guide 

This tool is designed to help local parks and recreation organizations lead a discussion among diverse team of community leaders and stakeholders to address creating a healthy community by improving the built environment. Download

Publications

 

Evolving New Approaches to Community Change: Social Change & Technology

WKKF has always seen community as the critical unit of change and recognized early on the importance of building the leadership capacity of professionals, formal and informal leaders, as well as the citizenry as a whole. New technologies, a growing evidence-base of proven community improvement strategies, and an interest in discovering improved forms of collective problem solving are fueling the Foundation’s current exploration of fresh approaches to its core mission. Download

Well-Being Legacy Inaugural Gathering: Summary Themes

The Well Being Legacy initiative sought to understand what it takes to create and sustain community conditions for intergenerational well-being. Four questions were used to guide the inquiry. The insights and related learning activities laid the foundation for a deeper dive. In July of 2018, a group of 150 local and national leaders joined in Oakland, California to explore and discern together how to profoundly advance intergenerational well-being in our communities and nation. Download

Our Natural Legacy: A Plan for Columbia and Boone County 

As a member of the Green Infrastructure Network Design Team, Roger Still co-designed a Natural Legacy Plan for Columbia and Boone County, MO. The plan charts a course for ensuring that the natural legacy continues to enhance the environmental, social, and economic well-being of the county. Download

Place-Based Practices Shape the Healthy Communities Movement

In celebration of the National Civic Review’s Special Issue: 25 Years of Healthy Communities, Monte Roulier contributed this article exploring how place-based strategies shape the Healthy Communities Movement. Download

Supporting Community Data Engagement ―A NCVHS Roundtable

Supporting Community Community Initiatives facilitated the October 2014 Roundtable on Community Data Engagement. This summary provides insights from the national gathering, including several possible strategies to increase collective impact for improving health and achieving health equity on a national scale. Download

Healthier Communities in Urban America 

This YMCA sponsored publication identifies characteristics, opportunities and challenges unique to urban communities. The report includes a look at factors that affect the work of Healthier Communities in urban settings, a discussion of how the seven leading practices relate to Healthier Communities’ efforts urban communities, and observations and suggestions for further inquiry. Download

Pioneering Healthier Communities: Lessons & Leading Practices 

Monte Roulier and Chris Paterson had the opportunity to collaborate with the YMCA to uncover emerging leading practices from the Pioneering Healthy Communities (PHC) initiative. The report includes the national public health crisis facing American communities today, reviews the history of how the YMCA has responded to that challenge, and details the leading practices PHC teams have discovered as the most effective approaches to their work. Download

Of, By, and For- Realizing the Catalytic Potential of Community-Centered Indicators 

Chris Paterson co-authored this article exploring community- centered indicators. This paper examines the context in which indicators are effectively used, the nature of communities that learn and the authors’ thesis that the authentic value of community measures rests in their being of, by, and for the people whose world they ideally reflect. Download