Healthy people 2020: Sharing implementation strategies via online community storytelling to reach national health objectives

Background: Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) is a comprehensive national plan that communicates a vision for improving health by setting measurable objectives and assessing progress throughout the decade. In a survey of HP2020 stakeholders, respondents expressed an interest in sharing best practices from across the nation to aid in HP2020 implementation. A commentary by Meisel & Karwash highlighted the need for the federal government to use storytelling to “help the public make sense of population-based evidence.” One way to address this need is by using storytelling in the form of implementation stories. Accordingly, HP2020 is developing web-based tools to help professionals learn what others are doing to implement HP2020 and share their own stories of working toward HP2020 objectives.

Methods: The launch of an online database will include stories developed through the HP2020 Community Innovations Project and the "Who's Leading the Leading Health Indicators?" series, representing a range of HP2020 Topic Areas, audiences served, geographic locations, and types of organizations. Additional stories will be submitted by the public on HealthyPeople.gov. Story submissions will be evaluated using specific criteria, including the portrayal of innovation and partnership and the evidence-based approaches used in planning, implementing, or evaluating the program.

Results: Presenters will discuss a content analysis of stories and metrics analyzing the uptake of these tools.

Conclusions: This presentation focuses on how a national health initiative uses narrative as an outreach and implementation strategy and on lessons learned for local, state, and federal organizations interested in using storytelling for communicating complex health issues.