Investments in place-based strategies to improve health have grown in the past decade from a small number of early adopters to a wide variety of funding partners. These range from local community and conversion foundations to corporations, corporate foundations, regional healthcare systems, statewide managed care organizations, and national networks such as the Y-USA and the United Way Worldwide.
In addition, the array of investments and activities is equally impressive. These include direct funding to coalitions for collaboration and community-based action; technical assistance and training to build capacity and sustainability; and learning circles, peer networks and web-based platforms to accelerate information exchange and movement building. Other investments have supported advocacy efforts to help scale policy and environmental change; capital to build facilities and infrastructure; coordination needed to align visions, funding and outcome measure; and recruitment of additional stakeholders to grow the movement.
With all this momentum, what are some valuable lessons learned about investing in healthy community change? Active Living By Design (ALBD) developed this resource for funders as a way of exploring that question.