Reclaiming a Proud Tradition of Wellness Strengthening the Voice of Community: Health Councils: Effective Collaboration through Collective Impact NM County/Tribal Health Council Convening Frances Varela, RN, MSN, MALAS Healthy Native Communities Partnership April 17, 2013
Reclaiming a Proud Tradition of Wellness The Leaders we need are already here, The Wisdom we need is present in our communities
Reclaiming a Proud Tradition of Wellness Healthy Native Communities Partnership Inc. (HNCP) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that supports capacity building, leadership development, partnership, and networking so that Native communities realize their own vision of wellness.
Building Capacity in Native Communities Healthy Native Communities Fellowship (HNCF) Develops and supports teams of community change agents for wellness Just Move It (JMI) A North American campaign to promote and support physical activity for Indigenous communities Native Wellness Resource Network brings people together to share ‘ what works ’ for wellness in Native communities and develop regional support networks Health Communications Supporting wellness through digital storytelling & social marketing Consultation, Training & Capacity Building for Native communities in community engagement, leadership development, health communications & wellness planning
Questions I Was Asked To Consider • How can health councils organize themselves to best respond to needs of their communities? • How can we keep the lens of health equity front and center? • How can health councils more effectively organize their collaborative efforts to achieve collective impact? • How do we maintain consistency and follow- through when there's so much turnover in political leadership at the local/tribal level?
PART ONE QUESTIONS How Can Health Councils Organize Themselves to Respond to Needs of Their Communities? How Can We Keep the Lens of Health Equity Front and Center?
Listening to and Engaging Community Voices: Engaging Community Voices To Strengthening Social and Cultural Capacity Make A Difference • Community Conversations that matter and lead to action • Strengths focus while understanding historic context and power dynamics and their effect on health inequities • Creating a community container that supports the work • Collaborative leadership and participatory group facilitation skills • Participatory Group Margaret Wheatley: Turning to One Process Tools Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to The Future (2002)
Listening to Community Voices: Paulo Freire Learning and Social Action Model The wisdom and knowledge about how to change • community conditions to address oppression caused by social, political and economic inequality, resulting from the colonization of Native communities over the last 400 years, comes from within the collective experiences of every person living in communities who deal with these inequalities on a daily basis. The methodology of Paulo Freire creates a structure • of participation that taps into this communal wisdom.
Colonizing Education It ’ s not east to begin to talk to one another again. We stay silent and apart for many reasons. Some of us never have been invited to share our ideas and opinions. From early school days and now as adults, we ’ ve been instructed to be quiet so others can tell us what to think. Margaret Wheatley: Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to The Future (2002)
We humans want to be together. We only isolate ourselves when we ’ re hurt by others, but alone is not our natural state. We become hopeful when somebody speaks the truth.
Communitiy River of Life
LEGACY OF VS MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP, TRUE COLONIZATION, PARTNERSHIP ASSIMILATION & ACE ’ s Power With Power Over H� P� � � � � One� Way� � � Two� Way� I� R� � � � S� O� � � Fosters� � Requires� T� B� CONFLICT� Irresolvable� Collaboration� POINT� O� L� � � Grief� � � R� E� � Heals� Generational� � =� I� M� � Causes� Anger� and� Guilt� � Generational� � C� � Role� Anger� and� Guilt� � Rebuilds� Trust� A� S� Strain� � � L� O� Role� � Causes� Mistrust� � Based� on� Choice� � L� Conflict � � � T� V� � Suppresses� � Heals� Internalized� R� I� Choice� Oppression� A� � � N� � Generates� � Reinforces� the� U� G� Internalized� � Richness� of� M� � � Oppression� Diversity � A � � � Seeks� out� Hidden� � Reinforces� Voices � Sameness � � � Creates� Hidden� Voices � � Health Inequities Healing, Health and Well Being -Roberto Chene-
Creating a Container For Community Listening and Dialogue
Many Hands: Community Members Are Key When community members and organizations from diverse parts of the community bridge their differences to work together to solve a community problem- this in and of itself begins to re- build a sense of community and cultural connection and strengthens the wellbeing of the community.
Best Practices in Engaging Community Broadening Participation in Community Problem • Solving: a Multidisciplinary Model To Support Collaborative Practice and Research Roz D. Lasker and Elisa S. Weiss • Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of • Medicine Vol. 80, No. 1, March 2003
Community Involvement is Key To Solving Community Problems Reasons Why It ’ s Hard to Involve Community People : Involving community members is about creating stronger social ties, building trust and fostering Our voice doesn ’ t matter a sense of identity and belonging-all of which • contribute to community health . Distrust & polarization • What happens is beyond • our control Community members are • objects not peers Stress of daily life •
What Works to involve the Community • Constantly reach out to the community- do not expect the community to come to you. • Create spaces for participants to form connections and build trust • Make participation easy and fun • The community wellness planning process is not run by a single individual or entity, but by a team of diverse participants who represent different community interests
What Works to involve the Community (cont) The CWP process is independent- not • controlled by the interests or agenda of any single entity or person. Value listening to one another and meaningful • conversation above talking at each other with sound bites and confrontation. Create group norms to make sure all feel safe to • voice different opinions Create a common language for the work •
What Works to involve the Community (cont) • Evaluate and continuously improve the group process: Get feedback from participants about how the process could be improved to make it work for them and then make those changes to the process. • Don ’ t blame people who drop out or stop participating in the group: Most of the time, the process wasn ’ t meeting their needs or they had nothing to contribute
An Agenda to Promote Participation
. Collaborative leadership and democratic management of the process are crucial to its success Collaborative leaders value team work, appreciate difference perspectives, bring diverse community participation into the process, are committed to making sure hidden voices are involved, and are comfortable sharing ideas, resources and power.
CWP Resource Guide
Part 2 Questions How can health councils more effectively organize their collaborative efforts to achieve collective impact?
What is “ Collective Impact ” ? The approach and the term were made popular by Kania and • Kramer, in a 2011 Stanford Social Innovation Review article. Defined as “ the commitment of a group of important actors • from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem. ” The initial article was based largely on the experience of the • “ Strive ” initiative in Cincinnati, but a follow-up article draws from multiple collective impact initiatives across the nation.
The Five Conditions of Collective Impact 1. Common Agenda Shared vision, common understanding of the problem, and a joint approach to solving the problem. 2. Shared Measurement Collecting data to measure results on a regular basis so that participants can hold each other accountable. 3. Mutually Reinforcing Activities Coordinated, but differentiated activities among the participant organizations. 4. Continuous Communication Consistent and open communication to: build trust, assure mutual objectives, and create common motivation. 5. Backbone Support A separate organization to coordinate the overall initiative and the participating organizations. Source: Hanleybrown, Kania, & Kramer. 2012. “ Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work. ” Stanford Social Innovation Review . 2
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