This presentation will provide an overview of Kaiser Permanente’s community health initiatives and explain how these initiatives use policy, systems and environmental (PSE) strategies to address the social determinants of health and promote health equity. Kaiser Permanente (KP) serves more than 12 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia and exists to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve.

KP’s Community Health Department improves the conditions for health and equity at the community level by addressing the root causes of health, such as economic opportunity, affordable housing, safe and supportive schools, and a healthy environment. These improvements grow from our collaboration with each community to co-design and co-create solutions that truly make a positive impact. By engaging members, communities, our sizeable workforce and all our organization’s considerable assets, we are working to create communities that are among the healthiest in the nation, and inspiring greater health for America and the world.

In this session, participants will learn about the strategies that KP is using to promote community health including: our commitment to address homelessness and housing instability; local “healthy community” policy initiatives such as City Health, as well as HEAL Cities which “make the healthy choice the easy choice”; stronger, more equitable and comprehensive tobacco control policies at the state and local level; and support for healthy school strategies so every community can count on their school as a champion for good health that enables great learning.

KP has been a leader in community health for decades and our approach to community health continues to evolve. Participants will leave this session with a greater understanding of how KP is advancing the future of community health through innovative PSE and investment initiatives.

This presentation will provide an overview of Trinity Health’s Transforming Communities Initiative (TCI). Trinity Health is one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation, serving diverse communities that include more than 30 million people across 22 states. Trinity Health includes 94 hospitals as well as 109 continuing care locations that include PACE, senior living facilities, and home care and hospice services. Currently, Trinity Health returns $1.1 billion to our communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. However, our commitment to serving goes far beyond what is defined as community benefit as demonstrated by TCI.

TCI was launched in 2016 to advance community partnerships that focus on improving the health and well-being in communities served by the Ministries of Trinity Health. It is an innovative funding model and technical assistance initiative supporting eight communities using community health strategies to prevent tobacco use and childhood obesity, as well as address social determinants of health. Collaboratives use a policy, systems and environmental change framework. The preliminary evaluation results from Year 1 (March 2016-June 30, 2017) demonstrate increased motivation, cohesiveness and accountability among the members of the funded collaboratives; increased collaboration with schools to improve food and beverage choices and increasing physical activity; creation of economic opportunity through food system development through partnerships with local communities; the development of safe places for children to play, enhancing local neighborhoods; and continued community efforts to reduce tobacco use. TCI also includes specific requirements and practices related to community engagement.

Participants will learn more about this initiative which aims to optimize wellness and equity and reduce disparities in eight communities around the county by leveraging resources and partnerships; focusing on those who are poor and vulnerable; and addressing the social determinants of health.

This session features ways healthcare-community partnerships can address social determinants and promote health equity through local and institutional policy change. It features the work of cross-sector teams participating in Moving Health Care Upstream’s Policy Learning Lab (PLL), a technical assistance model designed to increase capacity of healthcare-community partnerships to deploy evidence-informed policy as a strategy for improving community health.

The PLLs were conceived of and implemented by Nemours Children’s Healthcare System (Nemours). Through its children’s hospitals and health system, Nemours serves 250,000 children annually in Delaware Valley and Florida.

Developing, implementing and assessing policy is typically a lengthy process including many challenges and important decisions. PLLs provide short-term technical assistance to hospital-community teams at critical points in their process. Teams receive a combination of targeted policy research and analysis, coaching, connections to other organizations with experience and expertise, and training to increase knowledge and skill. The PLLs primary goals are to accelerate the work of teams, to provide knowledge and connections that endure once the initiative is over, and to inform the field by sharing resources and lessons learned.

Teams participating in 2017 and 2018 PLLs will be highlighted. These teams, from all around the country, focused on food insecurity (12 teams) and root causes of asthma (5 teams). Each team included a healthcare partner plus at least one community partner from another sector.

The session will include: 1) An overview of the technical assistance model; and 2) Insights on its value from Nemours Children’s Health System (lead/convener) and ChangeLab Solutions (technical assistance provider); 3) Detailed examples of how teams leveraged policy to strengthen their social determinants work related to food insecurity and/or root causes of asthma- including a summary of technical assistance provided; and 4) An overview of Learning Lab tools and resources available to the field.

This presentation will provide an overview of how health systems are incorporating policy strategies into their community benefits work to address social determinants of health including food insecurity; asthma prevention; and tobacco use. For the past five years, ChangeLab Solutions has served as a policy advisor to several innovative community health initiatives around the country and will share insights drawn from this work.

Increasingly healthcare providers and insurers are asking if healthcare accounts for only 20% of health outcomes, how can we influence the remaining 80%? Pioneering health systems have tried to answer this question by providing resources and leadership to community health initiatives that address the social determinants of health (SDOHs). This presentation will focus sharing lessons learned from our vantage point as a legal and policy technical assistance provider to some of the most innovative health systems nationwide including: Kaiser Permanente; Nemours Children’s Health System; RWJBarnabas’ Social Impact and Community Investment Practice; and Trinity Health’s Transforming Communities Initiative.

As consultants working across multiple initiatives, we see a few standard elements in successful programs including: an assets-based mindset to working with communities; diverse collaboratives with leaders who embrace and leverage the diversity; understanding of how local policy influences health; and collaboration between government relations and community benefits teams of the health system. This presentation will discuss how health systems have assessed the policy landscape; crafted policy agendas; engaged partners and policymakers; and sustained the work.

ChangeLab Solutions works across the nation to advance equitable laws and policies that ensure healthy lives for all. Our interdisciplinary team of lawyers, planners, policy analysts, and more, works with neighborhoods, cities, and states to create thriving communities. We have found that innovative health systems recognize the value of leading local and state policy initiatives to improve community health and promote health equity.