Patrick Chaulk, MD, MPH, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 701 St Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, Marcia Bayne-Smith, DSW, Urban Studies Department, Queens College, City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, New York, NY 11367, Phyllis E. Kaye, MPA, PEK Consulting, llc, 1522 K Street NW, Suite 1130, Washington, DC 20005, Tammi Fleming, Kingsley House, Health Care for All - New Orleans, 1600 Constance Street, New Orleans, LA 70130, 504-523-6221, TFleming@kingsleyhouse.org, and Curtis Watkins, East Capitol Center for Change, 5901 Dix Street NE, Washington, DC 20019.

Public private partnerships have demonstrated effectiveness in supporting resident involvement/input into policy development and in sustaining community health outreach that facilitates and encourage healthy behaviors. Communities with low levels of access to insurance coverage and/or ongoing connections to a medical provider are highly likely to benefit from these partnerships. Residents are also more likely to provide the most reliable information for policy development that will guide the best practices needed for meeting the health needs of their community.

To address the unmet health needs of under-insured and under-served communities, a partnership model known as the Neighborhood Messenger Model has been utilized to develop effective public private partnerships. In four communities around the country, the Neighborhood Health Model has brought together community based organizations, residents as health outreach workers/messengers, government sponsored public health agencies and/or health departments and private philanthropy.

This paper presents the findings of preliminary (formative) assessments of The Neighborhood Health Messenger Model. We will also present findings of the door-to-door outreach component of the model, the various kinds of negotiations and agreements between public health agencies/departments and local communities and the resulting outcomes of these efforts in terms of health insurance enrollment and services to hard to reach populations.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, participants will be able to

(
• Describe at least two specific ways that public agencies and community-based organizations have partnered to support resident involvement into policy development and sustain community healht outreach that facilitates healthy behaviors (
• List three factors critical to the success of these efforts (
• Apply ideas and lessons learned to their community

Keywords: Community Involvement, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Consultant to The Annie E. Casey Foundation
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.