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Goal:

Provide technical assistance and research support for programs and policies that promote population health.

Objectives:

• Develop and implement methods of measuring population health of communities – e.g., composite health indices and report cards.
• Develop standards for evaluating programs and policies that promote population health.
• Build the capacity of communities to make informed decisions and resource allocations in support of population health through increased opportunities for training and technical assistance.

Accomplishments:

• A sustainable learning community. A shared perception by Foundation staff and HII grantees is that the Initiative was responsible for creating an environment conducive to professional growth, problem solving, renewal and sustainability. Throughout the Initiative, a climate existed where grantees freely shared information, pursued common goals and/or collaborated to solve problems. What will be sustained are the relationships, the experience of working in an environment where communities assisted each other and the experience of effectively providing peer support.
• Implementation of a responsive, multifaceted, technical support delivery system. The HII logic model included provisions for technical support/training that were flexible, responsive and specific to each health partnership. The lead technical support grantee adopted a brokering model of technical support that effectively utilized the skills of health partnership grantees and many outside organizations. Technical support included a variety of support services and delivery mechanisms including: grantee technical assistance, training workshops, electronic communications, peer support convenings, technical assistance tools and publications. Throughout the five-year Initiative, HII grantees were involved in providing continuous feedback about the effectiveness of technical support services received as well as future support needed. The Foundation’s utilization of Initiative-wide management meetings and discussions with HII support grantees contributed to a responsive technical support system.
• The effective integration of evaluation into the HII. One of the important accomplishments of the HII was the effective integration of evaluation into the delivery of technical support and subsequent enhancements in the performance of HII grantees. All too often, evaluation and technical assistance compete for the attention of grantees. The evaluation strategy was simultaneously responsive to each HII grantee and the overall HII. Noteworthy contributions of the HII evaluation included: documentation of health partnership governance and implementation, definition and assessment of systems change, creation of indicators of success and establishment of broad interest in the evaluation of community-based health initiatives.