The California Endowment (TCE) launched its Community/Stakeholder Engagement (C/SE) process in the fall of 2016 as part of a mid-point review of Building Healthy Communities (BHC). The aim was to learn from a wide range of people involved in or knowledgeable about BHC – including adult and youth residents in BHC sites, other community partners, state advocates and policymakers, evaluators and funders – their perspectives about BHC after its first five years of operation.
TCE is committed to using stakeholders’ feedback for several purposes. Their views will help foundation leaders shape BHC implementation between now and 2020. In addition, TCE will use stakeholders’ perspectives as one important source of information as the Executive Team and Board consider strategy and investment options after 2020.
TCE’s Integrated Team engaged the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) to conduct an independent Community/Stakeholder Engagement process between November 2016 to February 2017, interviewing individuals and convening focus groups with a diverse array of 175 people engaged in and/or knowledgeable about BHC.
CSSP organized the study around five strategic lines of questioning:
I. Impact in the first five years: What do stakeholders perceive as BHC’s most significant accomplishments? What could have been done better?
II. Opportunities looking forward: What changes can make BHC even more effective between now and 2020?
III. Alignment of state-local advocacy, policy/systems and narrative change: How have community and state or regional forces worked together to advance health equity? How can this be more effective?
IV. Sustaining a movement for health equity: What alliances, capacities, leadership or other forces should be sustained beyond the period of BHC funding, and how?
V. Innovation and new directions: What areas of opportunity and possible innovation should TCE consider beyond 2020 in the continued advancement of health equity?
This main project report summarizes respondents’ views on the first three of these questions. Shorter, specialized reports about the other issues have been shared with foundation staff. (author abstract)
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