Building Healthy, Equitable, and Resilient Communities: Lessons Learned From Multisector Community Partnerships Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

Kelli DePriest; LaShawn Glasgow; Erin M Bayer; Stephanie Weiss; Karen Hacker

doi:10.1097/PHH.0000000000001998

Building Healthy, Equitable, and Resilient Communities: Lessons Learned From Multisector Community Partnerships Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

J Public Health Manag Pract. 2024 Oct 25. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001998. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Kelli DePriest¹, LaShawn Glasgow, Erin M Bayer, Stephanie Weiss, Karen Hacker

Affiliation

¹ Author Affiliations: Program and Policy Evaluation to Advance Community Health, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (Dr DePriest and Dr Glasgow); Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Improvement, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), Arlington, Virginia (Ms Bayer); Chronic Disease, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), Washington, District of Columbia (Ms Weiss); and National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia (Dr Hacker).

PMID: 39450859
DOI: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001998

Abstract

Context: Multisector community partnerships play a pivotal role in public health strategy for understanding and addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) and promoting health equity. The work of these partnerships is well aligned with building community resilience.

Program: The Year 2 Improving Social Determinants of Health-Getting Further Faster (GFF) retrospective evaluation was designed to gather practice-based evidence that can inform future community-driven partnerships to improve chronic disease outcomes and advance health equity by addressing social determinants of health (SDOH).

Implementation: This paper sought to determine how the efforts of multisector community partnerships could also support community resilience. Guided by CDC's Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health and health equity principles, the GFF evaluation engaged 14 Multisector Community Partnerships to better understand how their SDOH interventions contribute to community changes that improve chronic diseases and advance health equity. Data collection included qualitative discussions along with additional quantitative analyses of SDOH outcomes, costs, and prevention impacts. This paper focuses on insights gathered from qualitative discussions (2 virtual 60-minute discussions with members of each of the 14 Partnerships) around community resilience.

Evaluation: Results from qualitative discussions demonstrate how Partnerships' SDOH efforts created parallel opportunities for nurturing community resilience. For example, Partnerships engaged community members in the design and implementation of SDOH interventions in ways that nurtured a sense of belonging and empowerment to shape their community. To further build community resilience, Partnerships mentioned the importance of sustained and flexible funding, help building stronger partnerships, and a shared goal to build resilience and engage community members.

Discussion: Findings indicate that community partnerships working to address SDOH can drive reciprocal improvements in community resilience-contributions that are critical for advancing health equity. Partnerships suggested that health departments may have opportunities to enhance community resilience through their role as funder, facilitator, and convener.