Reader, I hope your 2024 is off to a fantastic start! Do you have a word that captures your intention and hopes for the year? Mine is “calmness”.

2023 was an adventurous year, personally and professionally, and while I absolutely loved it, I’m ready for some calmness this year.

What does calmness look like in our work with community coalitions? When we are intentional and apply helpful frameworks, tools, and strategies, it can really help us work towards the vision we have for our communities without the “frantic energy” that can cloud and overly complicate the work.

It is in this spirit of calmness that we here at PoP Health are structuring our upcoming Community Threads 2024 Newsletter Series around PoP Health's C.A.P.E. process, with each month focused on a different phase in the process:

Every phase of our CAPE process is built upon the foundation of PoP Health’s core values - we are: people-centered, action-oriented, and equity-focused.

Today, I want to briefly introduce each of these phases - which, notably, are not sequential. They are overlapping, often parallel, and always iterative. But we find that separating our thinking into these phases is helpful as coalitions wrap their arms around their work and how best to move it forward.

• Community collaboration (part 1) - How can we listen carefully to and meaningfully collaborate with those who live, work, and play in the communities we serve? How can we put community voices in the driver’s seat?
• Community collaboration (part 2) - How can we best lead and structure our coalitions so we are collaborating effectively and adding value to the community?
• Action planning - How can we plan strategically and act purposefully to get to action to transform health in our community?
• Participatory evaluation - How can we ensure we are always improving and learning?
• Effective storytelling - How can we best tell and share our stories, synthesizing experiences and learnings in ways that resonate with key audiences?

When we do these things well, the results are awe-inspiring:

• People in your community will feel heard, seen, and directly reflected in your plans and actions - leaving you with something that's more likely to work and that people will actually fight for.
• Your collaborative will feel confident in the plans and actions that are produced, having watched the collaborative, comprehensive, community-driven, and evidence-based process unfold.
• Your plans will inspire and mobilize concrete, meaningful action. Your community will understand exactly what steps to take next, how to take them, and who has to take them.
• You’ll be able to tell your story - loudly, proudly, and convincingly, with the voices of your community members front and center.

If this sounds like where you want to get, please join us for the ride, and invite others along too!

Our goal is to build a community of community coalitions seeking to improve public health - if you can pass on the word about our newsletter series to at least three of your colleagues/ neighbors/ friends who are working to transform health in their communities, we’ll be three steps closer to that vision!

Until next time,

Vinu

PS Learn something in this newsletter? Spread the word! Forward this email to a friend or colleague who might want to weave their own community threads.

PPS Want to learn more about PoP Health and how we partner with community coalitions and collaboratives to transform health in communities through policy and systems change? Check out our website!