Border Crossings: Transformational Partnerships for Community Health Improvement

Applying the social ecological model of health effectively at the community level requires transformational partnerships that transcend traditional public health boundaries. While broadly recognized as a goal, this continues to be a challenge in community public health practice. The Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute, an innovative workforce development program of the Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is building just these types of transformational partnerships, with important implications for large scale improvements in community health. The Leadership Institute has been successful in bringing together policy makers, business people, school officials, advocates, scientists, health care providers and local public health practitioners to tackle issues such as disparities in access to cancer care, physical inactivity, depression, obesity, and substance abuse among LGBT youth. This presentation will provide details of the Leadership Institute's boundary-breaking curriculum that provides theoretical and practical training to expand the range of approaches communities consider for health improvement and to strengthen the partnerships they engage in the process. Community participants' stories will be shared, along with some of the short and medium-term outcomes of participation in the Leadership Institute, including building transformational partnerships, generating media coverage, improving data collection, increasing utilization of prevention services, and accessing additional funding for local health improvement initiatives.