In October, 2009, Community Solutions adopted five programmatic priorities for the next three to five years. A couple priorities are new; others are extensions or re-focusing of work we are known for; all are complementary. While these five areas are at the top of our priority list for the next several years, they are by no means our only areas of interest or activity. For example, we will continue to publish data-based resources, such as Community Profiles, and research based on the U.S. Census and American Community Survey. We will continue to offer community forums on relevant issues, such as county reform’s impact on human services.
- Northeast Ohio 2020 (NEO 2020): Many Visions, Common Goals. The purpose of this exciting new initiative is to work with and influence civic leaders, public officials, and human service executives and professionals across Northeast Ohio to adopt—and align services and funding with—specific, measurable goals for improving health, social, educational, and economic conditions over the next decade. It will involve developing a set of leading indicators that (1) are most likely to be associated with multiple other quality-of-life measures, and (2) may be reliably and periodically tracked through the coming decade. Inspired by the work done over the past several years through the community goal-setting Summit 2010: Quality of Life project (Summit County, Ohio), we view this as an opportunity for our region to work together to make significant, positive changes that will impact residents. Honoring and building upon the region’s diversity, advocacy efforts will be directed to a wide variety of public bodies; civic, philanthropic, and charitable organizations; and nonprofit health and social service organizations serving 16 counties. To our knowledge, our initiative is unprecedented on this scale. Ambitious? Yes. Risky? Maybe. Timely? Absolutely. There has never been a time when it has been more important or appropriate for the region to work together to achieve common goals that improve people’s lives. Emily Campbell, policy and planning associate, will serve as team leader for this new endeavor.
- Public Policy and Analysis. One of the things we are proud of is our strong reputation in public policy analysis and advocacy in regard to issues that impact people. This priority moves our policy work from a basic, core competency of the organization to the forefront, giving it new energy and focus as we take more of a leadership role by producing high-quality analysis and advocacy at the federal, state, and local levels to improve targeted health, social, educational, and economic conditions. Our team will help identify emerging issues and will work with others to advance public policy goals in aging, child care and early education, and regional quality-of-life indicators. With an overarching goal of ensuring adequate state funding for human service programs, the team will give attention to fiscal and issue-based analysis—including fiscal sustainability and taxation, health care finance, economy and workforce, confidentiality and service coordination, and public contracting guidelines for health and social services—as well as work with local, state, and federal advocacy networks and partners. Jon Honeck, Ph.D., director of Public Policy, is team leader.
- Community Health. Community Solutions has had a role in community health issues dating all the way back to 1913. This new priority will include a major initiative to improve the health status of the region’s population by aligning public health prevention programs with the acute care heath system. Currently, there are a number of prevention programs in Northeast Ohio focusing on childhood obesity, unhealthy lifestyles, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, and a host of other health concerns. In addition, a number of the region’s primary care providers are focused on medical home and quality improvement initiatives designed to improve the health status of their patients. There is a need to develop better links between public health programs and primary care systems to prevent disease, improve health status, reduce chronic illness, and increase access to care for underserved and high-risk families. There is also a need to address the shortage of primary care physicians through changes to the graduate medical education system and to align the medical, advanced practice nursing, and public health education systems. To achieve these goals and improve key health status indicators, we will partner with academic institutions and health care, public health, and other public and private organizations. Ken Slenkovich, holder of the Treuhaft Chair for Health Planning, is team leader.
- Child and Youth Development. The most important factors in the future of our region are the well-being of our children and the education of our youth. Working from the foundation created over the past five years by the statewide groundWork initiative, this priority will involve using our recognized strengths—targeted research, analysis, advocacy, communication, and coalition building—to help the community increase school readiness and high school graduation rates. The first phase of this work will focus on increasing access to high-quality early care and education as the logical place to begin enhancing child and youth development. During 2010, we will plan additional statewide and regional work aimed at increasing school success, tying into work on NEO 2020. To begin, we will undertake an audit of community needs and current initiatives, and explore how successful work of our Youth Development team during the past 10 years might be beneficial to other areas in the region. Jon Honeck is team leader.
- Aging Agenda. Quality of life for older adults is another area in which we have a long history, working through the Council on Older Persons (COOP) since its establishment in the early 1940s. This new priority will focus on development of an adequately financed continuum of long-term care services to help address the needs of Ohio’s growing older adult population. It’s a fact that Ohioans are aging. And having high-quality options along the full continuum of care—from home-based services to nursing homes—is going to become even more critical. Ohio’s system of service delivery and finance is heavily skewed toward institutional care—the most expensive services. In light of the state’s budget deficit, the growing number of older adults, and the difference in cost along the continuum of care, it is in the state’s best interest to initiate long-range changes addressing service adequacy and affordability. To put it simply: Where is the money for long-term care coming from? Where is it going? And how can it be better used to provide the most appropriate care for the most people? Susan Ackerman, fellow/senior budget and fiscal analyst, is our team leader of this priority area, in cooperation with COOP and a statewide advisory panel of experts, advocates, and agency representatives.