What is your coalition’s UNIQUE value add?

What’s your coalition’s unique value add in your community?

Here at PoP Health, we’ve been thinking a lot about why coalitions sometimes feel stuck in neutral (and the key to shifting gears).

Our five steps to strengthen coalition foundations - the Coalition Core 5 - begins with shared clarity around why you exist as a coalition. More specifically, what is your coalition’s unique value add in your community.

What’s your coalition’s unique value add in your community?

Here at PoP Health, we’ve been thinking a lot about why coalitions sometimes feel stuck in neutral (and the key to shifting gears).

Our five steps to strengthen coalition foundations - the Coalition Core 5 - begins with shared clarity around why you exist as a coalition. More specifically, what is your coalition’s unique value add in your community.

What could you do to move the needle on health in your community that no other organization or group in your community is already doing or equipped to do?

Across the dozens of coalitions we’ve worked with over the years, here are the most common areas we see coalitions adding unique value:

  • Addressing systems-level challenges: Individual organizations in a community are naturally (and justifiably!) focused on their specific mission and the metrics they are held accountable to (whether by themselves, by their funders, or otherwise). They are rarely in a position to take the five steps back required to examine the system as a whole and all its players and what is or isn’t working, and think holistically and objectively about what changes are needed.

  • Enhancing coordination and collaboration: There are often way more resources and services and supports to address health and well-being in the community than one might expect. They’re just not coordinated in a way that maximizes impact. Sometimes this is about coordinating activities, sometimes it’s about collaborating to deliver or co-locate programs together, sometimes it’s about pooling resources, sometimes it’s about coming together around a shared narrative and messaging.

  • Engaging in collective action and advocacy: The value of a coalition table is that it’s many organizations and agencies and individuals coming together around a shared cause. What can you do together that you cannot accomplish alone? What kind of collective action and advocacy could help drive important systems changes in your community? And remember that advocacy is not only about governmental policy, you can also advocate for individual companies, agencies, and other organizations to do things differently (and that includes coalition members jointly committing to making changes within their organizations).

  • Building channels for community voice to drive decisions: Most of the time, the system isn’t engaging community members and it definitely isn’t responsive to them. Coalitions that prioritize bringing together community members and perspectives and then building the channels for their voice to drive decisions can have immense influence. These channels can focus on ensuring community voices drive decisions at the level of the coalition and its members but also more broadly at the level of local government, health systems, schools, businesses, and other community actors.

Here at PoP Health, we work with coalitions to help determine their unique value add and reflect it directly in their mission and theory of change.

For example, in our work with The DC Consortium for Mental Wellness and Behavioral Health in Schools (DC COMBS), we’ve helped the coalition develop a three-prong mission statement that really captures the things that no other space in the city was doing for school mental health that the coalition was uniquely poised to do:

  • Strengthen collaboration across research, practice, and policy spheres.

  • Create pathways for community voice to drive decisions.

  • Establish relationships with the actual decision-makers at the city and school levels

This mission now filters every decision the coalition makes.

It forms the basis for the coalition’s theory of change and how members are organized, as well as the coalition’s activities, outcomes, and plans for the future. The coalition just secured two years of funding using this three-pronged mission to organize the entire proposal – it provides so much clarity and a cohesive, compelling story.

Does your coalition have this level of clarity in what it’s here to do? Are you doing things that other organizations in your community already are or easily could be doing? Or are you focused on things that only your coalition can do in your community?

Think about these questions and drop me a reply with your thoughts.

I’d love to hear about both coalitions that feel really secure in their purpose and the value they’re adding in the community (and how you got there) and coalitions that are still figuring this out (and what you’re running into as you try to do this).

***

P.S. Sometimes it helps to just say the challenges out loud. If you're looking for a fresh perspective on what’s next for your health coalition, you can find my calendar here.

And if you're looking to share this newsletter with another coalition member or colleague, here's the link to subscribe.

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Why most coalitions feel stuck in neutral (and the key to shifting gears)

For the last few months, we’ve been talking about how public health isn’t actually a systems business. It’s a people business.

For the last few months, we’ve been talking about how public health isn’t actually a systems business. It’s a people business.

If you missed our series on this, or are just joining us (welcome!), definitely circle back and check it out. We talked about why I think public health is a people business (despite being a HUGE believer in systems change), the one thing it all comes down to, why you need champions, the biggest threat to sustaining your coalition’s work, and why the key to your coalition’s success is to be human (yes, even in - especially in - a world obsessed with AI).

Health coalitions and other partnerships are a prime example of public health as a people business. Yes, our aim is to change systems (not people), but to get to systems change, we have to inspire, coordinate, and mobilize our coalition and community members to act, and we have to listen to and learn from them along the way.

If you’ve ever felt STUCK in neutral in your coalition - stuck in the “ sit and meet with people” phase, stuck in the “let’s do another needs assessment” phase, stuck in the “we have a strategic plan but it’s sitting on a shelf phase” - then the key to shifting gears has to do with building a foundation that recognizes this PEOPLE component of the work.

Who you have at the table, how you listen to and co-create with them, how you inspire them, how you decide what to do together, how you build their capacity - all of this matters deeply.

Without it, you lack engagement, you lose momentum, you remain stuck in neutral.

With it, you build the foundation you need to shift gears and get to meaningful action and lasting impact.

I recently gave a talk at the National Network of Public Health Institutes conference where I shared the steps involved in this foundation. We call it the Coalition Core 5 and it’s the difference between a coalition feeling stuck and feeling like a superhero, between admiring the problem and solving it, between feeling stalled and having real momentum and impact.

Here are the five steps:

Over the next several issues, we’ll unpack each of these steps, sharing how we’ve helped our partners use them to shift from neutral into high gear.

But first, I’d love to hear your initial reaction. Which of these steps sounds most promising to you in terms of unlocking greater engagement and impact in your coalition? Drop me a note and let me know!

***

P.S. Sometimes it helps to just say the challenges out loud. If you're looking for a fresh perspective on what’s next for your health coalition, you can find my calendar here.

And if you're looking to share this newsletter with another coalition member or colleague, here's the link to subscribe.

***

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4 questions on the path to action

I’ve been sitting with some hard truths lately.

Systems are complex. Dynamic. Interconnected.

Working together in a coalition to change those systems is hard. Slow. Complicated.

That’s just the reality of what we’re trying to do.

I’ve been sitting with some hard truths lately.

Systems are complex. Dynamic. Interconnected.

Working together in a coalition to change those systems is hard. Slow. Complicated.

That’s just the reality of what we’re trying to do.

So for anyone else who’s feeling stuck, but not ready to give up (I’m definitely not!) - I thought I’d share some simple questions I go back to when I’m trying to dig myself out of the ditch and get us back on a path to action. (And let me be clear, I mean the questions are simple - the process of answering them and the answers themselves are unlikely to be.)

For whatever system you’re trying to change:

  1. What's working? What are the strategies, models, and examples that are working that we can learn from?

  2. What’s not working? What are the gaps, challenges, and complaints we need to address?

  3. What should be tried next? What specifically should be continued or started, changed or stopped?

  4. Who has the authority/capacity/expertise to execute those next steps? And what might we or our partners or our communities be able to do to influence, equip, or support those people to take those steps?

I hope these questions can help you climb back onto the path to action if you’ve fallen off, or keep you going on it if you’re still making your way.

And if you're looking for some extra support on that front, we're here to help! PoP Health's capacity building packages for community coalitions and their partners include training workshops, tools, and templates that will help you walk through the systems change questions I've shared above in a way that's driven by both community and coalition member perspectives. Plus, we'll support you with ongoing coaching and technical assistance that'll make sure you take those actions to the finish line. Here’s a brief summary, email me if you want to chat further!

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4 options in the face of collapsing systems

If you, like me, are distressed about what’s happening at the CDC, what’s happening around vaccines, what’s been happening with public health grants and research being terminated, and more - I see you.

If you, like me, are distressed about what’s happening at the CDC, what’s happening around vaccines, what’s been happening with public health grants and research being terminated, and more - I see you.

I shared my thoughts in the wake of the shots fired at the CDC here, and even just since then, we’ve seen top CDC officials resign after their director was ousted.

When systems are collapsing around us, it can be even harder than usual to answer the question of: what next? What should we DO? Not to mention, what CAN we do, especially if we are grappling with fewer resources and an uncertain future?

While I don’t have magic answers, I do have some options that might be helpful to consider. I found this piece on grappling with systems collapse very relevant to the community coalitions we work with here at PoP Health, who are focused on systems change - and thus especially impacted by systems collapse (hat tip to I2I, which drew my attention to this piece in their newsletter).

Let me summarize the options the authors of this piece lay out for what impact might look like in collapsing systems.

We can:

  • Protect. This model “builds and leverages power to counteract the worst harms, strengthen community resilience, and preserve values of care and belonging to carry people through crisis.” E.g., mutual aid

  • Block. “If a collapsing system seems likely to give way to an even more dysfunctional or inequitable alternative, then the blocking impact model may be an appropriate response. This model can slow down both the pace of collapse and the emergence of worse alternatives.” E.g., providing know-your-rights training.

  • Disrupt. This model “achieves impact by embracing the fact that as the legacy system deteriorates it is possible to shed the constraints, rules, and norms that do not serve the social sector.” E.g., boycotts and strikes.

  • Create. “With the system awash in uncertainty, there is an opportunity—even a responsibility— to pursue truly transformative impact. This means exploring the larger context in which the system sits….What ideas or projects can be tested or nurtured? Which leaders have been marginalized by existing systems, but…are uniquely positioned to step up in this moment?” E.g., participatory governance.

The full article adds a lot of important nuance about the conditions you need to maintain to push forth with each of these options.

Three bonus questions they ask at the end of their piece, and I’ll now ask you:

What can we let go of, what do we want to carry with us, and what do we want to build?

Here at PoP Health, we’re:

  • letting go of being the best (and being this instead),

  • carrying with us all we’ve learned from coalitions on the ground doing the work, and

  • seeking to build the capacity of more coalitions to translate their vision and resources into tangible action.

On that front, PoP Health is now offering capacity building packages for community coalitions working on systems change (training workshops, tools and templates that will save you time and get you to action much more quickly, along with ongoing coaching and technical assistance that'll make sure you take those actions to the finish line). Here’s a brief summary, email me if you want to chat further!

For me personally, I’m:

  • letting go of the desire to see results quickly (because the fight for our future, our health, our planet, our democracy - it’s all long-term and multigenerational),

  • carrying with me a focus on hope and action, and

  • seeking to help build community power, in my own community and beyond.

On that front, check out my new project GASLIT by Corporations/IGNITED by Community, at www.gaslitbycorporations.com.

What about you? What are you letting go of, carrying with you, and wanting to build? Drop me a note and let me know.

As the authors of this piece on systems collapse note, “this moment requires us to engage in repair and reimagination”.

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Go ahead, reinvent the wheel - just do it faster

When you hear the phrase “reinventing the wheel”, how does it make you feel? I’ve always thought of it as a bad thing, something to be avoided, a sign that I’m doing things wrong.

When you hear the phrase “reinventing the wheel”, how does it make you feel? I’ve always thought of it as a bad thing, something to be avoided, a sign that I’m doing things wrong.

In my work with coalitions, I’ve talked about the need to avoid reinventing the wheel - after all, why waste time and resources reinventing something that already exists, that someone’s already figured out?

So imagine my surprise in a recent meeting with a school mental health coalition I work with when one of the members said that avoiding reinventing the wheel shouldn’t be a goal, can’t be a goal, that it’s not possible. That instead, we should focus on creating systems and processes that allow reinvention of the wheel to happen faster, so we waste fewer time and resources.

My mind was blown.

Because, I realized, he was right.

When a school or organization gets new leadership, they might reinvent the wheel because it’s the only way they’ll be fully bought in to the solution, with a stronger understanding and belief in what needs to be done and why. Or maybe the wheel was developed a while ago and needs updating for the current context. Or maybe it was created for a different community and needs to be adapted to ours.

So there are actually a few different reasons why reinventing the wheel might not be an entirely bad thing. Plus, it’s kind of human nature, so maybe it's more effective and realistic to assume it will happen but do what we can to speed up the process.

So how can we make the inevitable reinventing of the wheel that will happen faster?

  • Internal documentation: document your coalition’s strategy, process, pivots, actions, accomplishments, challenges, outcomes, membership, partners - not just in a mass of disorganized files (I’ve totally been guilty of that before!) but in a running document with summaries and takeaways (and hyperlinks to key files), as if you were onboarding someone.

  • “Spark notes” on the larger system: whether your coalition is working on school mental health or some other topic or health broadly, you’ll want to summarize key information on the relevant system(s) within your community. What’s working (e.g., models, strategies, examples), what’s not (e.g., key gaps and challenges, including with respect to policies, funding, coordination, etc.), and the key agencies, organizations, policymakers, and others in your community who are involved in the system.

  • Process to update these regularly: of course, most coalition work is long term and both your coalition and its work and the larger system are ever changing. So you’ll want to establish some kind of process to update the internal documentation and “spark notes” on the larger system at a regular cadence, ideally in a relatively low-lift way.

So, are you on team “go ahead, reinvent the wheel - just do it faster!” or are you on team “avoid reinventing the wheel at all costs, we don’t have time for that!”? And are there other strategies you’ve seen work to make the work of reinvention go faster? Send me a reply and share your thoughts!

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Jane Fonda on how "community means power"

As agencies, nonprofits, families, and individuals make contingency plans upon contingency plans in face of all the uncertainty of this moment, I wanted to share some words - courtesy of Jane Fonda - of both hope and action (which were PoP Health’s wish + invitation for 2025…which, two months in, feels like it has already lasted about two years).

As agencies, nonprofits, families, and individuals make contingency plans upon contingency plans in face of all the uncertainty of this moment, I wanted to share some words - courtesy of Jane Fonda - of both hope and action (which were PoP Health’s wish + invitation for 2025…which, two months in, feels like it has already lasted about two years).

I’m not really up on pop culture or Hollywood, but I’ve been deeply impressed with Jane Fonda ever since I heard a podcast interview with her a couple years ago - what a life, what energy, and what commitment. In an industry where it is especially easy to ignore, pay lip service to, or throw a few pennies at societal problems, she’s been on the ground trying to fight for change.

So, I didn’t hesitate to click on the video of her speech at the SAG awards a week ago, where she received the Life Achievement Award (transcript here for the readers out there). And I’m so glad I did.

Here are my key takeaways:

  • “Community means power.” - She talked about how unions have our backs and give us power, and I’d add to that all the other ways of coming together in sustained, structured ways - community coalitions, co-ops, neighborhood associations and groups. Create them, join them, sustain them.

  • “Empathy is not weak or woke.” - This statement stands by itself, but Fonda had more to say about empathy. First, she connected it to the job of actors - “...we don't manufacture anything tangible. What we create is empathy.” Indeed, I’m a big believer in storytelling and its importance in creating empathy as well as inspiring and persuading. Which brings us to Fonda’s next point about empathy - “And even if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy and not judge, but listen from our hearts and welcome them into our tent, because we are going to need a big tent to resist successfully what’s coming at us.” I could not agree more. To sneak in some words from Rebecca Solnit, who I’ve been turning to often over the last couple months, “You need to pitch a big tent and welcome everyone who might come in, even if they came over recently and weren't always there. No one knows what it is going to take to overcome the current crisis…I do know that it's going to take a lot. The more the better.” As Solnit goes on to point out, “unwelcoming committees from people more interested in being right than effective” are self-destructive to the causes we support.

  • “We are in our documentary moments. This is it. And it’s not a rehearsal.” - Fonda urged us to take this seriously, be brave, stay in community, and take action. And it’s not enough to just be against things. Fonda underscored, “We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future. One that is beckoning, welcoming, that will help people believe.”

As Fonda went on to say, “Let’s make it so,” Reader.

In your coalitions and your work, how are you projecting an inspiring vision of the future, widening your tent, staying empathetic, and building community power? Drop me a note and let me know. And let me know if you disagree about what we need right now too - disagreements are always welcome here.

And, for those looking for more concrete advice on how your coalitions, organizations, and agencies can take action in your communities to transform health - a quick save the date: April 2nd, noon ET, on Zoom, join PoP Health for a free action planning webinar. You'll learn about the #1 missing ingredient that's preventing your action plan from getting the results you want + details on how to follow our 5-step action planning process to go from feeling stuck to feeling like a superhero. Register here!

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What organizing IS and ISN'T

Unfortunately, everything is still on fire, and the public’s health (and SO much else) remains under threat.

I talked earlier this month about how taking action requires a) actually planning and committing to take action and b) organizing.

But what even is organizing?

Today, I want to share a little primer on what organizing IS and what it IS NOT.

Unfortunately, everything is still on fire, and the public’s health (and SO much else) remains under threat.

I talked earlier this month about how taking action requires a) actually planning and committing to take action and b) organizing.

But what even is organizing?

Today, I want to share a little primer on what organizing IS and what it IS NOT.

Most of the content here is from a National Academies panel with Jamila Michener and Jonathan Heller during a workshop earlier this month on democracy and governance.

Organizing IS NOT merely mobilizing.

During this panel, an attendee asked an excellent question - we’re talking about organizing to protect and advance democracy and public health, but what about all those that are organizing against those goals? Couldn’t one argue that those who don’t share these goals have basically organized us out of a democracy at this point? In their response to this question, the panelists drew a distinction between organizing (where the process of organizing has to be a democratic one and develop the critical consciousness of those involved) and mobilizing (which is just about putting people into movement, even if it’s “astroturf” or other such entities telling the community what to believe).

Organizing IS NOT merely “individuals brandishing banners stating scatter goals”.

You’ve heard me quote Grant Ennis on this before, but it bears repeating. Historical protests that led to meaningful policy change did not involve “individuals brandishing banners stating scattered goals” but rather “organized citizens focused on political action” with banners that “listed their demands and the names of the groups they represented.” We need organizational weight and structure behind demands in order to sustain the efforts to make the demands reality beyond a single protest or set of protests/actions.

Organizing IS about both building and breaking power.

The panel I mentioned was titled “Building and Breaking Power” and I think this distinction is so important. I loved how they broke down these concepts. Building power in community looks like community organizing, developing coalitions, starting social movements. Breaking power where corporate interests (or, random unelected billionaires, as the case may be) have too much of it looks like profit minimization, regulation, enforcement - and, I would add, as I heard chanted at a recent rally, it looks like litigating, legislating, agitating, and resisting. Both building and breaking power involve negotiation and storytelling and making and pursuing collective demands.

Organizing IS about a lot more than just direct action.

Don’t get me wrong, direction action is important (I’ve been dusting off my long forgotten bubble letter/coloring skills and running my daughters’ markers dry these last couple weeks making signs for rallies), but it’s just one component of organizing. During the panel I mentioned, they shared many different concepts that make up the idea of organizing (from a forthcoming publication called “Let’s Talk: Community Organizing”). I’ve organized them into three groups below.

There are aspects of organizing related to internal change in those involved:

  • Increasing their sense of control/agency/power;

  • Increasing their ability to reflect critically and hold complexity (which relates to the prior point about how organizing isn’t merely mobilizing);

  • Building their capacity - to identify problems, to identify change targets (that solve problems, unify the base, and build power), to organize, and to collectively solve problems.

There are aspects of organizing related to external change by other actors:

  • Making demands and taking actions (including via campaigns/initiatives).

And there are aspects of organizing related to structural change in how the organizing is happening (this relates to the prior point about how organizing isn’t just individuals brandishing banners):

  • Building a base, “expand[ing] the number of people impacted by problems in their community who are in relationship with one another and involved in collective action”;

  • Developing leadership, “shifting from private shame about the problems they face to a public stance, and [building] leadership to solve these problems”;

  • Forming an organization to coalesce and sustain power (this one is incredibly important - without the structure of an organization, it's extremely difficult to keep efforts coordinated and sustained).

I continue to feel that the only way out of the many messes our country is currently in is through meaningful, effective organizing. I hope this primer is a helpful lens through which to think about it.

And I hope PoP Health's upcoming free webinar on action planning for community coalitions and launch of a new initiative that aims to change the narrative and inspire organizing to build and break power (and make organizing itself easier and more effective!) help too - we'll be sharing dates for these launches soon.

In the meantime - keep taking action! I really love this distillation of different ways (and varying levels of effort) to do something in support of democracy - https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/.

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Action Planning Vinu Ilakkuvan Action Planning Vinu Ilakkuvan

Taking action when everything is on fire

Whew, it's been a couple weeks, hasn't it?

Public health is being further threatened than it already was in every direction - halting of foreign aid work; an attempted coup in the form of a spending freeze; an anti-vaccine skeptic nominated to lead the nation's health agency; the list - sadly - goes on.

Whew, it's been a couple weeks, hasn't it?

Public health is being further threatened than it already was in every direction - halting of foreign aid work; an attempted coup in the form of a spending freeze; an anti-vaccine skeptic nominated to lead the nation's health agency; the list - sadly - goes on.

And the opposition to these threats? It's been weak, slow, and completely insufficient. I don't mean opposition as in people ranting about and posting about and discussing these problems. I mean opposition as in actually taking action.

And why is that? I think there are two key issues here:

1. Actually taking action isn't a central part of enough our organizations’, agencies’, and coalitions’ (not to mention politicians') ethos, frameworks, and plans. Speeches and reports and "awareness raising" and "information sharing" are not ACTION. And here’s the thing - nothing changes until we act.

2. We aren't organized!! And it's not entirely our fault. Our civic infrastructure has been ravaged by everything from land use policy (which prevents the kind of community building we need to foster the trust, conversation, and connection that is foundational to organizing) to restrictions on 501c3 lobbying (while leaving corporate lobbying, political influence, and in a word, corruption, unchecked) to the decimation of local news (which is needed to hold local policymakers and others accountable, foster community action, and more) to the weakening of community, labor, and other organizations that could actually put weight behind advocacy demands and see them to fruition.

So we can call our congresspeople or join protests, but without actual, meaningful, and long-term organizing, we're not going to be nearly effective enough.

I've been giving both the action and organizing points above a lot of thought, even before the chaos of the last couple weeks.

On the action front, PoP Health will be offering a FREE live class for community coalitions sometime this Spring, all about why every community health coalition needs a strong action plan - and the process they need to get there. Community-rooted work is more important than ever right now, and with a strong planning process, your coalitions can deepen your impact and build community power.

On the organizing front, we've got some wheels in motion, but it's early yet - stay tuned for more details, and please reach out if you have ideas to share or want to be involved. Also please drop me a note if you've seen examples of or are involved in taking organized action against the current threats to public health.

As Grant Ennis notes in his book Dark PR, historical protests that led to meaningful policy change did not involve “individuals brandishing banners stating scattered goals” but rather “organized citizens focused on political action” with banners that “listed their demands and the names of the groups they represented.”

And as I heard in a conversation about the role of democracy in population health yesterday, protests and other forms are direction are a component of organizing, but they are the not the entirety of organizing. There's a lot more to organizing effectively - stay tuned for the next Community Threads newsletter for more on that.

Everything that's happening right now is a LOT, but I still have hope we can find ways to come together to not just act in opposition, but to proactively put forth different - and more compelling - narratives, values, and ways of shaping our policies and our communities.

We can do this.

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Action Planning Vinu Ilakkuvan Action Planning Vinu Ilakkuvan

Why we must ACT in 2025

I opened the new year inviting you to join PoP Health at the intersection of hope and action to transform health in our communities.

Earlier this month, we dove into the idea of hope.

Today, we’re focused on ACTION.

I opened the new year inviting you to join PoP Health at the intersection of hope and action to transform health in our communities.

Earlier this month, we dove into the idea of hope.

Today, we’re focused on ACTION.

I’m all about capturing data to understand community needs - but does it sometimes feel like all we’re doing is defining (and redefining) the problem, listing challenges and barriers, and adding proof points that the problem exists?

I think sometimes we get paralyzed thinking we need more - more information, more resources, more time - instead of figuring out how to ACT in the here and now, with what we have.

I heard a great example of this at a workshop this past Fall, from an organization called Beyond Housing in St. Louis. Their CEO shared the simple framework they use to guide their work: Ask, Align, Act. “We ask for the community’s input to identify priorities, align resources, and act toward fulfilling a common vision.”

It sounds SO simple. Yet, many organizations and agencies aren’t doing this.

Part of that, of course, is because it isn’t actually simple to identify priorities or align resources, much less act. There are so many complexities and challenges, and I don’t want to diminish those.

Yet, that’s only part of the story. Many organizations and agencies aren’t even trying to act, at least not in a meaningful way.

I think the first step towards taking meaningful action is doing what Beyond Housing has done - make ACTION a central component of your organization’s ethos, framework, plan.

The results can be impressive. Just check out what Beyond Housing has done - https://beyondhousing.org/about/our-work/.

Here’s the thing - nothing changes until we act.

We also can’t learn what works - and perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t work - until we act.

It’s in this spirit of taking action that we here at PoP Health will be offering a FREE live class for community coalitions this Spring, all about why every community health coalition needs an action plan - and the process they need to get there. Stay tuned for more details!

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Action Planning Vinu Ilakkuvan Action Planning Vinu Ilakkuvan

Why we must HOPE in 2025

Regardless of where on the spectrum your year so far falls, I stand by what I shared last week: I believe wholeheartedly that it is at the intersection of hope and action that we can work together to transform health in our communities. So in this issue and the next, I’d like to break down each of those concepts.

Today, we’re focused on HOPE.

How is the start of your year?

I hope it is off to a great start, but I know too that many across the country are experiencing hard times just weeks into the new year.

Regardless of where on the spectrum your year so far falls, I stand by what I shared last week: I believe wholeheartedly that it is at the intersection of hope and action that we can work together to transform health in our communities. So in this issue and the next, I’d like to break down each of those concepts.

Today, we’re focused on HOPE.

Especially as we’re coming up on inauguration, following an election that demonstrated just how polarized communities across our country are, holding on to hope feels even more important - and yet, even harder - than before.

But hope we must.

Like many others, I found much hope in Rebecca Slonit’s words post election.

I encourage you to read her brief post in its entirety, but here are three pieces that stood out to me:

"You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving."

"People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good."

"Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed."

Within her words, there are three important lessons about hope:

  • Hope does not mean we hold onto an unfounded belief that we can save everything - but it does mean embracing the reality that we can save SOME things and those things are worth saving.

  • Hope does not mean you feel good. I think we conflate feeling hopeful with feeling good in the moment, right now. It’s possible to have hope even when you’re feeling heartbroken, even when you’re feeling furious, even when you’re feeling deflated, even when you’re feeling skeptical. In fact, it is especially important to hold on to hope when you’re feeling these other emotions.

  • We hope because we - all of us, our lives, our dreams, our destinies - are connected and while the threads that connect us are “stained and torn”, they are also perpetually being “woven and mended and washed”.

So thank you, for weaving and mending and washing these Community Threads with us. Let’s keep at it.

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