The perils of trying to be everything to everyone
I was facilitating a coalition meeting recently and the conversation ended up going in circles for a bit - someone would propose an idea for a message or an activity and someone else would respond explaining why that wouldn’t resonate with or convince members of their community.
After a few rounds of this, someone interjected with a powerful idea - it’s one I’d heard before and you likely have too, but it bears repeating: Let’s say 20% of the community are strongly with us and 20% of the community will always be against us, no matter what we do. That leaves 60% - maybe we can focus on them instead of the 20% we’ll never be able to sway.
A non-cringey survey that helps coalitions understand themselves
Today, I’m going to talk about surveys.
Does that make you cringe?
I understand if it does. Surveys get a bad rap.
We’re often trying to get participants in a program or members of a community to take a survey, and - often - we don’t provide enough context for them to buy into the value of the information they’re sharing or for them to believe any changes will result from their input. To be fair, and to make matters worse, oftentimes there aren’t changes made as a result of survey responses.
Leveraging the power of in-person gathering
I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of in-person gathering on the professional end as well. After a long summer vacation, this Fall has been a period of reconvening in person.
Last month, we had an in-person kick off for a DC School Behavioral Health Consortium that drove home the energy and sense of community that can come simply from sitting around the same table. I also loved the icebreaker the meeting conveners used to set the stage for our time together - they shared a collage of different images representing collaboration and asked each person, as we went around the room for introductions, to share which image resonated most with them and why. What a great way to orient the group to the reason we had come together and unearth some key distinctions and nuances in how each person at the table might approach this work. We’ve gotten used to “setting the stage” activities in virtual spaces, but they are just as valuable in in-person gatherings.
How to keep people engaged in community health improvement efforts
Have you ever struggled to keep people engaged in a community health improvement effort (or any effort, for that matter)?
I work with a lot of community coalitions and collaboratives, and most of them are volunteer-based, which makes this question of how to maintain engagement especially important. But even those that compensate their members for their involvement need to consider the question of how to keep people involved and inspired and motivated to participate and act in meaningful ways.
The power of a storytelling sentence
When it comes to community health improvement, we often find ourselves in situations where we need to tell a compelling story. To name just a few:
We need to convey the impact and value of a particular health issue to a policymaker so they are motivated to write or pass legislation that would help address it.
We need to share the impact a policy or program is having with our funders and communities so they are inspired to help sustain it.
The shifts that come from listening
I've talked about the difference between hearing and listening to community before.
And even though it's something I believe in deeply, I'm still surprised at the shifts that happen when we truly do that.
A couple weeks ago, for work I'm doing in DC around systems-level shifts to school mental health, we brought together youth to generate ideas around how to improve youth engagement in the school context.
Here are some of the ideas that came up repeatedly:
15% and 15x solutions
Do you ever feel powerless to tackle the big problems your community faces?
I often feel that way, and I think many of us do.
On the other hand, do you ever feel like our solutions aren’t enough - not big enough, not disruptive enough, not transformational enough?
The value of ONE right door
Have you heard the phrase "no wrong door" before?
A Google search didn't bring up a standard or formal definition, but the description I found that most aligns with my understanding of the concept is this:
"The vision for No Wrong Door is that every door in the region’s healthcare and human services system should be the right door with a range of services being accessible to everyone from multiple points of entry."
This is a lovely and logical idea in theory.
But I have come to question how well it works in practice.
Just do it. Then iterate.
Whatever idea you’ve been mulling over, considering, planning for…just do it.
Now, I know it’s not that simple (in most cases).
Maybe you can’t "just do it” because you don’t have the authority. Or because you need to assess the potential consequences. Or any one of a dozen other perfectly valid reasons.
A fish, an elephant, and an iceberg: Orienting community towards root causes and systems
When a community is trying to address a public health problem, the immediate causes are often the most apparent.
Too many youth aren't physically active. Why? They don't understand the value of physical activity or the consequences of not being active. What should we do? An education and mass communication campaign to help them understand this value and these consequences, so that they are motivated to be more active.