Online Program

Oral

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program combines data and action to create solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their own communities. The Rankings document the factors that affect a community’s health, including health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment, while the Roadmaps provide guidance and tools to support communities taking action to improve those factors and therefore, ultimately health outcomes in their communities. In order to make a significant impact on the multiple factors that drive health outcomes, communities must engage leaders from many sectors to make meaningful policy and programmatic changes that will ultimately result in improved health. This session will feature the work and voices of leaders from three different sectors—business, community development, and elected officials—who will illustrate how collective action happens in local communities. The three sectors that will be featured in this session are critical players to improving health and to furthering work to build a health in all policies approach. Business leaders both create jobs and need healthy communities that produce healthy current and future employees that will support the productivity and profitability of their businesses. Community development leaders have long been in the business of creating affordable housing and thriving neighborhoods and are now doing so with an explicit focus on improving health outcomes. Local elected officials control policy and budgets that support multiple health factors including transportation, land use, parks, and social services.

Session Objectives: Describe the specific interests of sectors outside of public health that can move them to meaningful engagement in adding a health frame to their work Describe the characteristics of boundary spanning leadership and how it builds partnerships. Discuss partnerships involving local business leaders, community development leaders, and elected county officials to improve health in communities. Identify at least one strategy the attendee will take back to their community to further health improvement work.