MCHU's Policy Learning Lab was launched in 2017- with an initial focus on food insecurity and root causes of asthma. The Lab was envisioned as a technical assistance model for accelerating the uptake of evidence-informed local public policies and/or institutional policies that strengthen upstream population health initiatives. The intent of the Policy Learning Lab is to support teams in getting beyond short-term obstacles slowing their progress giving them resources for the remainder of their journey toward their long term policy agenda: technical assistance, customized policy scans, tools/template/resources, and/or connections.
All technical assistance materials for PLL teams are shared below- if you are seeking "how to" materials related impacting food insecurity and root causes of asthma via local public policy or institutional policy, read on!
QUICK TIP- To quickly locate and review detailed technical assistance plans provided to groups doing work similar to your own, skim summary tables on pages 3-7 of our 2018 Compendium of Research and Technical Assistance Memos and click on the team to go directly to their plan.
A goldmine! Detailed "how-to" materials provided to 2017 PLL teams. Why reinvent the wheel?
The goldmine...continued. Detailed "how-to" materials provided to 2018 PLL teams. Why reinvent the wheel?
New to policy? Our playbook guides you through each step of the policy development process.
Practical tips and tricks for using and evaluating email and social media- designed for "non-experts".
Moving Health Care Upstream (MHCU) is based on the belief that health systems can address persistent and costly health inequities by moving "upstream"– beyond the walls of hospitals and clinics and into the communities, collaborating with community-based organizations to address the root causes of disease. The various areas of work within MHCU share a common focus- supporting hospitals and community stakeholders in testing and spreading strategies to move upstream, and sharing "what works" to inform the field and accelerate the upstream movement in the field as a whole. The Policy Learning Lab is one example of MHCU's work to spread knowledge and accelerate action in the field.
1. Sustainability, Spread, Scale: For sustainability, program work must be combined with policy development. Without this connection, even the strongest programs are at risk of becoming one offs and of disappearing with shifts in funding or staffing. Policy can institutionalize good ideas, yet MHCU and others doing similar work have observed that many organizations and communities have not yet developed policies to institutionalize and grow their programs addressing upstream causes of disease and disparities.
~ Knowledge & Skill- Often, clinicians and other practitioners who develop and implement programs are not "policy people," and don't have a high level of knowledge or skills related to developing local public policy and/or institutional policy.
~ Dedicated Time- Despite the potential effectiveness of learning collaboratives, MHCU staff have repeatedly heard that allocating dedicated time for participation is a challenge. Dedicating time to conduct targeted policy research and scans is also challenge for groups and coalitions.
The Policy Learning Lab pilot converted these challenges into opportunities by using a short-term (4 month) process to increase knowledge and skills of members and to provide teams with targeted policy tools (such as research and scans). These skills and tools are intended to accelerate the development of evidence-informed local public policy strategies and/or institutional policy strategies to target upstream causes of disease and disparities.
Nemours contracted with ChangeLab Solutions as our lead partner based on their subject matter expertise on our chosen topics as well as their expertise in providing technical assistance on the development of local public policy and institutional policy. The expertise of ChangeLab Solutions was supplemented by additional subject matter experts who were involved on an as-needed basis, based on the needs of teams. Subject matter experts for the teams focused on root causes of asthma included Green & Healthy Homes Initiative and Nemours Health & Prevention Services. 2017 experts for teams focused on food insecurity included Feed1st at the University of Chicago's Lindau Lab, Root Cause Coalition, and Prevention Institute. 2018 food insecurity experts included Food Action & Research Center (FRAC) and Children's HealthWatch, under the auspices of their co-led network- the Hunger Vital Sign National Community of Practice.
The technical assistance provided to each team is available to the field at large- see our Compendium of Research and Technical Assistance Memos.