Advancing the Movement: Recognizing Achievements and Charting a Bold Path Forward
2012 marked a year of tremendous growth and momentum for ATM. Enhanced resources, new platforms and strengthened partnerships formed the cornerstone of these advancements.
Highlights:
New and Improved Community Commons
As the first major deliverable inspired by ATM, the Community Commons – an interactive mapping, networking, and learning utility for the healthy, sustainable, and livable communities’ movement – has come a long way. Now more than ever before, the Community Commons is helping people better connect to resources, better visualize new possibilities, better engage in our movement, and better share resources and tools with a growing network.
Working with the Community Commons team at IP3, and fueled by a generous two year grant from Kaiser Permanente, ATM leaders have actively listened to user feedback and suggestions for enhancements, while building additional functionality from our development plan. As a result, the Commons now features a more interactive, dynamic experience:
A More Dynamic Map of the Movement: It’s now easier to learn what local/regional initiatives around the country are doing to make their communities healthier and more sustainable. You can easily add your initiative to the map if it’s not already represented.
New Starter Maps and Tutorials: With a few keystrokes, you can now create compelling GIS maps to help tell your community (or county, region, or state) story in a whole new way. The Commons’ one-of-a kind internet-based GIS has something for everyone, whether you’re new to GIS or an old pro.
Compelling Social Networking: You can now build your own profile, tag the organizations in which you’re involved, connect and search for fellow Movement members, and share links, documents and pictures. You can also join an issue-centric Group for a more focused, topical experience.
Awards: In May, The Commons won the “Moving Forward with Technology” award at the national Weight of the Nationâ„¢ conference spearheaded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Visit the Community Commons today and see for yourself how this platform can serve your needs and aspirations.
New FREE Community Health Needs Assessment Reporting Platform – Embedded in the Commons
As the latest major functionality added to the Community Commons and representing another game-changing contribution to the field, the platform (initially known as CHNA.org) debuted to the nation in early December. Soon to be wholly integrated in the Community Commons, CHNA is a free web-based platform designed to assist hospitals, non-profit organizations, state and local health departments, financial institutions, and other organizations seeking to better understand the needs and assets of their communities, and to collaborate to make measurable improvements in community health and well-being. At no cost to the end user, the CHNA platform provides an array of data, analytic, mapping and reporting resources that do the following:
Democratize the community health needs assessment process by bringing a broad array of publicly-available data into one site, dramatically minimizing duplication of efforts and reducing costs to communities
Inform robust civic discourse by supporting community members in developing a shared understanding and common agenda for addressing the realities of their communities.
Enable community stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to create, implement, and invest in strategies that have been shown to produce measurable improvements in community health and well-being.
Support hospitals and health systems to conduct quality Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) that meet government standards for nonprofit hospitals, public health departments conducting CHNAs and pursuing accreditation, and the requirements and needs of other community sectors.
Visit CHNA.org today to discover its unique capabilities and help spread the word about this exciting, new resource. You are invited to watch an introductory video and to sign-on using your Community Commons username and password. If you are not a Community Commons member, you can register on the site. For more information, read ATM’s CHNA.org launch announcement.
Policy Advancements
In 2012, the Policy Committee – chaired by Jim Krieger and Tracy Fox and joined by more than two dozen of America’s most effective public health and related social determinant’s policy leaders – began its work. Their mission: to connect community leaders taking local action with policy opportunities at the state and federal level. This includes telling local stories about the benefits of healthier public policies and the value of adequate financing for prevention. While taking care to do educational and advocacy work within program parameters, this work is making it easier for community residents to take meaningful policy action.
Recent activity included sending educational letters regarding protection of the Prevention and Public Health Fund of the Affordable Care Act, educating on key priorities such as MAP 21 active transportation opportunities and reducing junk food marketing to kids, as well as hosting educational webinars on how to use the Community Commons’ maps and assets to support mobilization.
Strengthened Partnerships and Increased Collaboration
Over the past year, we’ve continued to strengthen our partnerships and grow a robust network. A few partnership highlights include:
Actively supporting the National Prevention Strategy with the Surgeon General, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Trust for America’s Health to mobilize organizations and communities to take the pledge and implement its framework.
Working with Let’s Move! and HHS, in alliance with the National League of Cities and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to advance action on the First Lady’s pillars.
Working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support Community Transformation Grant (CTG) sites and other CDC sites and cohorts (CPPW, ACHIEVE, REACH, Pioneering Healthier Communities) to enhance peer learning and take action on evidence informed strategies at scale.
Working with Kaiser Permanente, HBO, CDC, The Institute of Medicine, The National Institute of Health and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to support “The Weight of the Nation” HBO series released in the spring.
Working with the Partnership for a Healthier America to track commitment-maker results, and provide targeted use of the Commons’ data sets and mapping tools to shape future commitments.
Working with Trust for America’s Health and partners to build public understanding of the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
Strengthening partnerships with Y-USA, ChangeLab Solutions, Prevention Institute, PolicyLink, Public Health Institute, Bipartisan Policy Center, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Place Matters, National Wildlife Federation, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, National REACH Coalition, California Convergence, LiveWell Colorado, United Way Worldwide and many others.