Action Institutes and Training

September 2009–August 2010 Schedule

Coaches Meetings

• Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Meeting
  September 20–22, 2009, in Arlington, VA
• ACHIEVE Coaches Meeting
  March 2–4, 2010, in Washington, DC

Held a few months in advance of the ACHIEVE and Pioneering Healthier Communities Action Institutes, the Coaches Meetings provide training to two local coaches from each community—one from the local affiliate of the funded partner and one from the community at large. Coaches are educated in how to convene a team of local leaders and elected officials that represent multiple sectors and how to lead an assessment of the presence and strength of policies in their communities. In addition, coaches learn the importance of policy, systems, and environmental change strategies for chronic disease prevention and health promotion.

 

Action Institutes

• Pioneering Healthier Communities Action Institute
  December 9–11, 2009, in Washington, DC
• Strategic Alliance for Health Action Institute
  April 27–30, 2010, in Houston, TX
• ACHIEVE Action Institute (Western U.S.)
  June 14–17, 2010, in San Diego, CA
• ACHIEVE Action Institute (Eastern U.S.)
  June 21–24, 2010, in Tampa, FL

CDC's Healthy Communities Program Action Institutes train a leadership team from each community in how to make health-related policy, systems, and environmental changes. These interventions at the local level focus on preventing and controlling chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and arthritis and reducing the prevalence of health risk factors, especially tobacco use and exposure, insufficient physical activity, and poor nutrition.

Community leadership teams receive training from innovative national experts on community-action and community-change processes and develop an action plan during the institutes. They also gain access to a wide range of action tools, resources, and strategies and hear from peer communities about how to undertake effective interventions. Team-building opportunities are scheduled to promote further discussion and infrastructure development. This experience advances the team’s collective thinking regarding vision, priorities, and next steps.

All newly selected communities attend an Action Institute in their first year of ACHIEVE, Pioneering Healthier Communities, and Strategic Alliance for Health. Ongoing training is provided by CDC and partners through conference calls, webinars, site visits, and other training meetings each year.