In early November, the American Public Health Association held its Annual Meeting & Exposition in Boston. This event brings together over 13,000 national and international educators, researchers, epidemiologists and health professionals to address current and emerging health science, policy, and practice issues in an effort to prevent disease and promote health. Phillip O. González, Program Director for Roadmaps to Health Community Grants at Community Catalyst, and BACH Steering Committee Member, moderated a panel discussion entitled, The Power of Multi-Sector Coalitions: Improving Health through Education Policy. This workshop featured presentations from two Roadmaps to Health grantees from Philadelphia and Providence who spoke to the use of diverse, multi-sector partnerships to address education policy as a health improvement strategy, a central theme of the session. In addition, a coalition in Detroit presented on their use of a multi-sector coalition to address the health of infants and their mothers.
The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. It combines data and action to create solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their own communities. The County Health Rankings rank the health of nearly every county in the nation and document the crucial role social economic factors play in our health. The Roadmaps to Health Community Grants promote action to address those factors, and in May 2011, Community Catalyst, a Boston-based health advocacy organization, was selected to manage the Roadmaps to Health Community Grants Program, which supports 30 coalitions in 23 states.
Some highlights of the session included exploration of the multi-sector partnership approach; the advocacy capacity framework developed by Community Catalyst, and the eight core advocacy capacities used to advance policy and systems change, such as “engaging grassroots support” and “influencing decision makers.” Two examples were provided by grantees: an advocacy coalition in Providence that has engaged elected officials and other leaders to make improvements across the state’s entire educational spectrum and a coalition in Philadelphia led by a local United Way and prominent business leaders seeking to establish a statewide kindergarten readiness assessment. Those grantees have organized a variety of stakeholders from their community into diverse, multi-sector partnerships and are using their collective impact to pursue education reforms at the policy or system level.
Education is a key predictor of one’s health over time. The education level a person ultimately achieves affects employment, health behaviors, wealth, access to health care and therefore health outcomes. Raising awareness about the strong links between educational achievement and health among a broad range of city and state stakeholders from education, health, business, and elsewhere in the community can help engage new champions and achieve collective impact. This linkage strengthens coalitions and allows a more holistic approach to long-term quality of life, which benefits all. This is some of the thinking that has led BACH to identify influencing educational policy and practice as one of its key strategic issue.
For more information about Community Catalyst and the Roadmaps to Health Community Grants Program, please visit the website at www.communitycatalyst.org or contact Phillip O. González, Program Director at pgonzalez@communitycatalyst.org.