We help organizations create health opportunity through focused community development strategies.
Health opportunity is influnced by multiple factors beyond health care and health promotion programs, including opportunities for education, employment, affordable housing, transportation, healthy food, active spaces, and social connection. Community development engages people and organizations in efforts to create and strengthen community assets that support population health and well-being. Community Health Solutions helps local stakeholders advance community development in ways that enhance health opportunity, as outlined below.
Community collaboration is essential for community health and community development. The reality of most community challenges is that no single organization or sector has the capacity to produce a viable solution working alone. The challenge lies in facilitating collaboration in ways that create real value for community members and the collaborating organizations. Meeting this challenge requires nuanced strategies that respect local values and provide practical supports for defining goals, crafting strategies, building on existing assets, and working together to produce results. Community Health Solutions offers extensive experience in developing and supporting community collaboration for addressing issues in health and community development.
Community data is essential for identifying informing decisions related to strategic planning, program design, program evaluation, and site location. Community mapping provides visual insight for identifying areas of health and risk, and where people live in relation to community assets such as schools, employers, affordable housing, transportation, food sources, activity spaces, and health services. We help organizations use community data and mapping to inform the work of expanding health opportunity for community residents.
Community insight analysis is about engaging community stakeholders in sharing their insights and ideas for improving community services and overall community development. Ideally community insight analysis is conducted in tandem with commmunity data and mapping to tell a multi-faceted story about community strengths, gaps, and possible solutions. We help organizations develop community insight through community-based surveys, interviews, and group events. We also provide training and technical assistance to help organizations develp their own capacity to conduct community insight analysis.
Community needs assessment combines elements of community data, mapping and insight to identify particular areas of need. A community needs assessment can be structured as a broad-based assessment of community strengths and gaps, or as a more focused assessment of community needs and capacity with respect to particular issues or population segments. We help organizations conduct community needs assessments that are strategically focused, action-oriented, and efficiently implemented.
For community programs and organizations, the key to sustainability is to define and communicate value in ways that matter to key stakeholders. By applying a systematic Community Value Analysis, a program or organization can define its value for key partners and funders, and use the results to drive improvement and make the case for funding. CHS offers training and technical assistance to help organizations conduct Community Value Analysis using a proven process. As an example, view an outline of the Community Health Center Value Model we developed in collaboration with the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.
The value an organization delivers goes beyond its mission and services provided. In addition to their role as service providers, community programs and organizations are contributors to the local economy of their service region. CHS delivers economic impact analysis to help organizations communicate this message to key stakeholders. In our experience, economic impact analysis can be a powerful tool to accompany Community Value Analysis.
Health impact analysis (HIA) is a process that helps evaluate the potential health effects of a plan, project, or policy before it is built or implemented. HIA is often used to examine the potential impact of health related policies. More recently, HIA has been used to analyze the potential health impacts of initiatives in education, economic development, housing, commercial development, transportation, and more. Community Health Solutions is adept at methods of policy analysis and community analysis that are essential for health impact analysis.
The CHC Value Model
Telling your Value Story
We created the CHC Value Model to help community health centers define and communicate their ‘value story’ to key stakeholders. Think of your value story as the set of messages that are most likely to motivate your audiences to value and support your organization. We offer a menu of supports to help you define and demonstrate the distinctive value of your CHC.
Community Health Centers as Value Leaders
America’s Community Health Centers (CHCs) deliver tremendous value to the communities they serve. Today it is critically important to define and communicate this value to CHC stakeholders including consumers, service partners, health plans, employers, foundations, and public officials. Community Health Solutions is proud to provide strategy and practice supports to help CHCs achieve their goals. One product of this work is the CHC Value Model.
The CHC Value Model
The CHC Value Model is a strategic model for defining and communicating the value of CHCs. The purpose of the CHC Value Model is to define and communicate the value CHCs deliver so that key audiences will be persuaded support the important work of community health centers. The CHC Value Model can be applied for individual CHCs or for multiple CHCs as a group. The end product for your organization will be a strategy and a product for defining and communicating the value your organization delivers to one or more key audiences whose support you need to sustain your work and achieve your mission. This process of defining and communicating value can be used repeatedly to advance the strategic objectives of your organization.
The Core Messages of the CHC Value Model
The CHC Value Model is based on seven core messages that can be defined and communicated individually or in combination. The messages communicate that CHCs deliver value by:
- Addressing Local Health Needs;
- Providing Access to Vital Services;
- Keeping Patients and Families First;
- Delivering High Quality Health Care;
- Controlling Health Care Costs;
- Supporting Community and Economic Development; and
- Innovating for Excellence.
These core messages are the product of extensive research on the value of community health centers nationally, as well as the insights and idea of the Project Value pilot participants. These messages are offered as a starting point for defining and communicating the value delivered by your organization.
Steps for Applying the CHC Value Model
Organizations can apply the CHC Value Model by following a five-step process as outlined below. Your audiences may include staff, board, service partners, health plans, funders, local media, and public representatives. Your objectives, your value story, your value indicators, and your value products will be customized to reflect the particular interests and circumstances of each audience.
- 1. Define Your Audience
- 2. Define Your Objectives
- 3. Define Your Value Story
- 4. Define and Produce Your Key Value Indicators
- 5. Produce and Deliver Your Value Reporting Products
Supports for Applying the CHC Value Model
Community Health Solutions provides a complete menu of supports for applying the CHC Value Model. Our supports include:
- Access to the CHC Value Model Quick Guide and Toolkit
- Advisory support for defining your value strategy
- Technical support for developing your value model data
- Research and analytic support for producing the following profiles:
- Community health profile
- Health service profile
- Patient profile
- Quality metrics
- Economic impact metrics
- Key innovations
- Other indicators and metrics relevant to your value story.
Next Step: Contact Us
We support application of the CHC Value Model, for individual CHCs as well as collaboratives and associations. To learn more, contact Community Health Solutions for a free, no-obligation consultation.
