Introduction: In 2020, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) a five-year project to enhance data exchange capabilities and reduce health disparities in Michigan. The Center for Health and Research Transformation (CHRT) joined as a partner to support 7 regional health collaboratives and facilitate a learning community. The project recognized the absence of community voice in the initial health IT design, emphasizing the importance of integrating these perspectives to meet user needs and improve health outcomes.

Description of Evidence: CHRT, with assistance from the RHC learning community, established a Community Council (CC) to involve community health workers and Medicaid recipients in project governance (Patten, 2019). Each of the seven regions nominated one to two individuals for the CC. From this selected group, two members serve as voting members on the executive committee.

In 2024, MDHHS established the CIE Advisory Committee to implement a statewide CIE governance structure. In 2025, the CIE Advisory Committee worked closely with representation from the regional health collaboratives and subject matter experts across the state to launch a Community Voice Subcommittee at the state-level, including consideration of how local governance structures- like the CC- will develop into an effective governing model for CIE in Michigan.

Description of Program Outcomes: The learning community was crucial for the identification and recruitment of participants who could provide grassroots-level insights. The initiative placed community voice at the forefront of decision-making by involving those directly impacted as community health workers, clients, and Medicaid recipients.

Conclusion: The creation of the CC identified the importance of community input in shaping initiatives that advance community goals. The regional nomination strategy proved valuable for the council's development and sustainability.

Recommendation for Practice: The statewide Community Council has successfully amplified the community voice and paved the way for their continued involvement in future initiatives. Other states can learn from this process of identifying and recruiting community members to serve on their statewide council.

Iowa’s rural communities face many challenges including declining populations, lack of housing, fewer available workers, and higher rates of certain chronic diseases which affect quality of life, making it more difficult for people and businesses to thrive.

The Iowa Rural Vitality Coalition (IRVC) is a partnership comprised of state-wide organizations including Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Iowa State University, University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, the Rural Policy Research Institute, the Iowa Economic Development Authority, and the Iowa Rural Development Council, with interest, expertise, and resources directed at improving the health and vitality of rural residents and their communities using a new model of the Comprehensive Rural Wealth Framework (CRWF).

The IRVC began working with two pilot communities in February 2024 and over the next 2–3 years will implement the CRWF to co-create and execute a holistic, health focused strategic plan. The CRWF defines wealth as more than just financial means and takes a comprehensive approach to identify assets and gaps in a community through the CWCF. With the IRVC, communities will explore the interconnectedness of the wealth capitals and develop and implement plans that build on assets and identify solutions specific to their root causes and data informed community needs to create health and vitality.

The University of Iowa Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy is conducting a mixed-methods formative and summative evaluation of the project using surveys, field observation and interviews from the coalition and community stakeholders and gathering data from the broader pilot communities to document the intervention process, validate this model of the CRWF, and refine the intervention for future replication.

This presentation will include a description and goals for the coalition and the pilot project while highlighting the similarities and differences between traditional strategic and economic planning and the CRWF approach. We will describe how cross-sector connections established through this project have positively impacted the pilot communities and the state of Iowa on the local and state level. Results and recommendations for practice from completed phases will be shared.

Background: CESCR relies on cross-sector partnerships between community organizations, healthcare systems, and researchers that build the capacity and infrastructure to achieve healthy communities. Sustainable partnerships require trust-oriented relationships; clear needs, expectations, and priorities; and an equitable research approach – from ideation and development to implementation, results interpretation, and dissemination. Such an approach recognizes the value and expertise of individuals with lived experiences, and their role in improving the health of communities. The purpose of this project is to develop a sustainable partnership to advance CESCR in San Diego County.

Methods: We conducted a series of co-led, co-designed and co-facilitated activities that leverage the infrastructure, expertise, and missions of three organizations: The San Diego County Promotores Coalition, the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Moores Cancer Center Community Outreach and Engagement, and the UCSD Center for Health Equity Education and Research. Project activities include the establishment of a Community Health Worker Advisory Board (CHWAB), bidirectional listening sessions, and development of a CESCR Guide. CHWAB members were selected based on: (1) lived experiences with health-related social needs (HRSN); (2) service location across San Diego County; 3) professional experiences addressing community members’ HRSN.

Results: The CHWAB includes five CHWs from four regions of San Diego County. Listening session topics included: principles of community-engaged research; social care; research 101; cancer prevention; knowledge dissemination and impact. Co-creation of the Guide will be completed by November 2025.

Conclusion: CESCR is an approach that yields valuable, in-depth insights and co-created strategies that advance sustainable social care research aiming to improve health equity of individuals.

Public health implications:

Cross-sector partnerships that are built on elements such as trust, clear communication, and an equitable approach are essential for conducting sustainable CESCR. By integrating CHWs, our model ensures individuals with lived experiences help define research priorities, inform research approaches, and disseminate results. Establishment of a CHWAB and development of a Guide provide tools for fostering community engagement and long-term collaboration that can serve as a model for CESCR.

Background: Renters living in some historically working-class communities in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada have experienced chronic stress related to gentrification, leaving some people struggling to maintain their tenancy and wellbeing. Neighbourhood planning is important in urban settings to help address the disproportionate harm for equity-seeking communities at an intra-urban scale. It is important to center communities in planning processes, even if they are directed by government or academic actors.

Objectives: To share a community-centered approach to neighbourhood resilience planning by describing a planning study with renters in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Methods: The Smart Citizens Enabling Resilient Neighbourhoods (SCERN) study has developed an interactive community-based method for leveraging and integrating forms of citizen expression and participation on public and digital places to build knowledge of community- and individual-level stress and resilience related to these different stressors. This approach relies on two tools: (1) a resilience planning framework that outlines community engagement for neighbourhood/public health planners, and (2) a participatory mapping platform to enable community members to directly record personal and collective geographies about daily stress and resilience in physical places and related digital places.

Results: Community engagement helped researchers identify a neighbourhood in Hamilton’s North End that could benefit from resilience planning. A community advisory board (CAB) was formed to help researchers identify a specific contextualize chronic stress and community resources currently experienced by renters in the neighbourhood. Working with the CAB, a participatory mapping campaign included 51 adult renters living in the neighbourhood, who submitted “place reports” regarding specific locations that cause them stress or provide support. Mixed methods analysis characterized the distribution of salient places and themes related to chronic stress and resilience. A community meeting involving the CAB and renters living in the neighbourhood was held to discuss ways to strength resilience for this community.

Conclusion(s): A report was generated containing strategies and activities for strengthening the resilience of renters in Hamilton to gentrification processes, which was communicated to local politicians and community service organizations.

Public health implications: Engaging communities in neighbourhood planning can facilitate health prevention by addressing chronic stress experienced by specific communities.

Despite the health benefits of physical activity (PA), many children are not sufficiently physically active. The issue is exacerbated for low-income children, as more than half of them fail to meet the PA guideline and higher levels of physical inactivity. Additionally, while the importance of community resources (CRs) and organized activities (OAs) in impacting low-income children’s PA is recognized, little research has examined how the combination of these factors can influence PA.

This study examines the interrelationship between CRs, including physical environments and social factors, and participation in OAs such as sports, clubs, and lessons, in influencing PA among low-income children. Namely, we explore how low-income children can enhance their PA by participating in OAs within their communities.

We used data from the 2019 National Survey of Children's Health. We conducted a mediation analysis using the Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) to examine how a variable affects the outcome and the role of another variable in the relationship. Specifically, we determined the indirect effect of participation in OAs on the relationship between the presence of CRs and PA among low-income children.

As a result, for physical inactivity levels, we found indirect effects of the presence of sidewalks or walking paths (β=0.294, p-value=0.048), recreation/community centers or Boys & Girls Clubs (a1: β=0.482, p-value=<.001), and neighborhood support (β=0.099, p-value=0.003) on avoiding physical inactivity via participating in OAs (β=1.462, p-value=0.002). Regarding regular PA patterns, the indirect effects of presence of recreation/community centers or Boys & Girls Clubs (β=0.482, p-value<.001) and neighborhood support (β=0.099, p-value= 0.003) on more frequent PA days for low-income children by participating in OAs (β=0.36, p-value= 0.004). Enhancing access to facilities and fostering neighborhood support can encourage participation in OAs and PA, ultimately improving community health and well-being.

Based on the socio-ecological model and the social determinants of health frameworks, this study explored various determinants for low-income children’s PA and strategies to address health disparities. We emphasize the importance of enhancing the physical and social environment while fostering a culture of PA that improves the health of children, families, and the broader community to support community’s health and active lifestyles.

Coalition building plays a vital role in public health by uniting diverse stakeholders to tackle complex health challenges through shared expertise and resources. In community health planning, coalitions ensure that the voices of all affected groups are not just heard, but included, thus leading to more inclusive and effective solutions. By fostering collaboration across sectors, coalitions strengthen efforts to address the social determinants of health and promote equitable outcomes. Ultimately, they enhance the capacity of communities to drive sustainable, positive change in health policy and practice.

PHI Center for Health Leadership and Impact (CHLI) has supported almost 300 communities across 53 states and territories in building strong coalitions by cultivating local leaders, catalyzing learning networks, and supporting cross-sector partnerships. Our national program, the Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (LAPH), a program of CHLI, recruits teams nationwide to create and sustain multi-sector partnerships that drive local health improvements. Over 90% of participants in LAPH utilize agile leadership and cross-sector collaborations to improve community wellbeing. This presentation provides a case study on how a team utilized the LAPH tools and resources to strengthen cross sector partnerships within their network to address mental health in Arkansas with an annual summit including partners representing faculty, staff, students, faith leaders, and colleagues within the community. Session participants will gain insight into the LAPH model and tools that can be applied locally to enhance community health planning efforts and partnerships in their communities.