Online Program

288515
What makes a community a healthy place to live, learn, work, and play?


Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 8:30 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.

Julie A. Willems Van Dijk, RN, PhD, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Madison, WI
Bridget Booske Catlin, PhD, 517 WARF Building, Department of Population Health Sciences, Madison, WI
Kirstin Siemering, DrPH, RD, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
More and more community leaders—from public health officials to mayors to United Way leaders to citizen volunteers—are acknowledging that there are many factors beyond health care that contribute to the health of a community. As they do so, they face an uncertain landscape. In order to address issues that range from creating healthy and safe environments to building strong educational and economic systems to assuring access to high quality health care to supporting people in healthy decisions, they know they face complex challenges that will require teams from across sectors to create innovative solutions. But what are the secret ingredients to success?

Part of that answer can be found in the winning communities selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Roadmap to Health Prize. The prize seeks out communities that excel in seven areas—a commitment to leadership; partnership; a focus on multiple factors that influence health; health equity; policy, systems, and environmental change; creative use of resources; and evaluation. This session will explore these areas, how they contribute to health improvement, and important themes discovered across the Prize-winning communities. Examples and stories from the communities will be shared. Participants will be encouraged to think about how these themes could apply to their own community and identify strategies to begin or enhance community health improvement work when they return home.

Learning Areas:

Administration, management, leadership
Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Describe themes that are common to communities who are moving community health improvement forward. Identify one strategy that can be implemented in the attendee’s own community to advance health

Keyword(s): Community Building, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a public health researcher and the Deputy Director for the County Health Roadmaps project at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. I was an integral member of the team that designed the Roadmaps to Health prize and served as a site visitor. I have studied the prize winning communities to identify themes. In addition, I am a past local health officer who led similar work.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.