Winnable community transformation grant strategies:Local priorities & perceptions

North Carolina's Community Transformation Grant Project (CTGP) has divided 98 counties with 83 local health departments into ten regions . Region 2 comprises 11 counties and 9 local health departments in the western part of the state. In order to understand the climate in each of the counties within the region a “Winnability Assessment” of 9 selected CTGP strategies was conducted across the region in the Fall of 2012. Fifty community representatives from five community sectors across the counties were identified as key informants for on site interviews. The interviews provided an opportunity to promote awareness of CTGP and determine how Region 2 work might best be prioritized across and within counties. Interviews would both inform leaders about CTPG and capture opinions and advice from local experts before high visibility efforts were implemented in any county. An evidence-based community-driven approach to prioritize “winnable” policies was modified to apply a ranking and scoring process to quantify the “winnability” of each CTGP strategy across the factors of culture, infrastructure, leadership support and current funding. Forty-five (90%) of the key informants completed interviews and both quantitative (3 most winnable, 3 least winnable) and qualitative results (comments on why and how)regionally and by county will be presented. Discussion will include lessons learned about the nature of the CTGP strategies from a local perspective as well as local perceptions of health as an economic development tool, ability of multiple sectors to pull together, and the ability to secure and leverage local resources.