The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #49744

Leda Perez, PhD, Camillus House, 336 NW 5th Street, Miami, FL 33128, 305-374-1065, leda@camillus.org

In 1998, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded Miami-Dade County a five-year grant for its Community Voices Initiative to increase access to health care for the uninsured and underserved. Now in year four, the project has moved forward as a convener and planner in the county through its work with myriad agencies in helping to build consensus around health care access recommendations for the County. As a convener Community Voices Miami has been responsible for bringing together key stakeholders to the table around large-scale funding opportunities for the wider community. As a planner, a recent accomplishment of the initiative has been to obtain broad consumer and provider input and support for a comprehensive action plan, “Miami Action Plan for Access to Health Care,” based on extensive research and planning with consumers and the provider community. The end goal of the project is to improve access to health care for the uninsured and underserved of Miami-Dade County. This process has been accomplished by building trust and relationships among many layers of our community.

Learning Objectives:

• The participant will learn more about a process that has sought to build consensus around key health care access recommendations in a diverse community.
• The participant will learn about the value of developing an initiative such as Community Voices Miami over an extended period of time.
• The participant will learn more about some of the project team's "lessons learned" in the process.

Keywords: Consensus, Community Health Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Organization: Community Voices of Miami; Product: the Miami Action Plan for Access to Health Care. We do not view this as a potential conflict of interest.
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employer