Moving beyond data collection: Community coaching to move health improvement plans into action

National accreditation guidelines for public health agencies and Affordable Care Act mandates for non-profit hospitals are driving changes in community health improvement planning. In Wisconsin, many communities collect data and develop needs assessments and health improvement plans in the interest of forging stronger partnerships for health. However, many lose momentum in moving these plans into action. The Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute piloted an evidence-based train-the-trainer curriculum for a multi-sectoral cohort of “community coaches” to accelerate community success in developing effective partnerships for implementing policy, systems and environmental changes to improve community health.

The curriculum was designed to train local community leaders as coaches who engage their communities in the improvement process and address key areas where communities often get “stuck” in moving from planning to action. These areas include effective partnership building and community engagement, cultural humility, asset mapping, group facilitation, action and evaluation planning, public health communication, and implementing policy, systems and environmental change.

In this presentation, the Healthy Wisconsin Leadership Institute will discuss key components of a best practices curriculum for multi-sectoral leaders who are coaching their own communities as they move from health improvement planning to action. We will also describe lessons learned in piloting this train-the-trainer curriculum for community coaches and future plans for implementation.