Leverging all sectors for effective community-based strategies

With the reality of budget constraints and increased accountability, it is more important than ever that public health organizations work effectively and efficiently. One key method to doing so is to re-engage existing partners and stakeholders and work hard to engage new non-traditional stakeholders from across all sectors. Depending on your organization's history with its partners, various techniques may be necessary to successfully re-engage. These include documenting the history of your partnerships and relationships and potentially using neutral entities to facilitate information gathering on your behalf, i.e. key informant interviews and focus groups. Working with partners from the business, transportation, education sectors, as well as others, can help you realize many benefits. Benefits of these new partnerships include efficient leveraging of funding and more effective public health strategies to address our most pressing health issues. The components of a successful engagement approach include; stakeholder outreach, environmental scanning/research, and robust communication and planning efforts. By gaining insight into this comprehensive approach, attendees will be able to; 1) Identify the key stakeholders involved in effective community-based strategies, 2) Evaluate benefits/barriers to engaging cross-sector representation, and 3) Identify the key program benefits from cross-sector collaboration.