Creating Ripples of Community Health Improvement

With my background in direct service, I particularly enjoy doing live graphic recording/drawing for events which focus on community and public health. In fact, I prioritize working with practitioners who are doing meaningful work caring for humanity, and our ecosystem.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas convened their health coalitions and WSU Community Engagement Institute’s Elevate Kansas for their yearly conference at the State Docking building in downtown Topeka, KS.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Pathways to a Healthy Kansas initiative and it is a very special year because they are now seeing the fruits of each community’s labor. Their focus: “The Pathways Effect” – evidence of transformational change in communities around health that has been the hard work and effort of health coalitions across Kansas.

The goal of this event was connection. For these health coalitions, it’s a once a year in-person opportunity to get to know one another, learn from each other and as one of the sessions taught “steal each other’s ideas.”

The Drawing Part

It’s fun to see what I end up drawing based on the messages that are shared. Even I don’t know exactly what is going to be said, so it’s a surprise for everyone, me included.

For this event, I got to draw so many interesting things. For one part, I chose to illustrate a farmer’s market table with some berries, nuts, and fresh produce to represent the discussions about nutrient-dense foods, farmer’s market vouchers and food as medicine.

It’s always a balance between the amount of words and symbols – some quotes are too good to leave out, or to leave as text alone – they deserve color and images, too. I use my experience, my interpretation of the content shared to then decipher what images to pair with a quote, what text to decorate, and/or what stories to highlight. I begin by scratching these notes onto paper and then add them into the digital drawing near similarly themed content. I’m synthesizing the content and also organizing it for better readability and reference.

The set up for me was perfect. I had a table and chair on the side of the room where I could hear and see presenters. My iPad was connected to power and a monitor/screen so attendees could see my drawings instantly as I was making them.

I was really grateful that the organizers added my bio and photo to the program, and that they mentioned me multiple times during their talks, and invited attendees from across the room to come over and see the artwork up close.

There are multiple pathways to make your community healthier. It’s about HOW communities are working together to have this ripple effect of improvements.

Pathways is currently working in 19 communities, with over 600 grants and 45 million dollars awarded across the state. For those 19 grantees they have received non-competitive funds to do evidence-based projects within the categories of: physical health, healthy food access, commercial tobacco control, and behavioral health. It was calculated by one presenter that there was more than 2,500 years of experience in the room.

Why is it important to invest in community health?

When communities are healthy, everyone benefits. The concept really is that simple, however, the solutions are a bit more complicated. There are five social determinants of health pathways outside of healthcare- community, economic development, built environment, food, & education- which include safety, nutrition, and literacy, which are essential for longevity and quality of life. Thus, there are coalition-led community health initiatives spark transformation that centers community engagement and inspires action.

Gathering of voices in communities who are most impacted by these social determinants is key. Gaining involvement can be tricky and looks different for each community group. It may look like incentivizing participation to get key people to the table to participate in a CHNA, or Community Health Needs Assessment. It can look like handing out water every Friday in the blazing sun at a trailer park and learning from the residents about their greatest needs. It can mean looking for those unlikely people in unlikely places and using your social connections. It could be implementing a food voucher program at your local farmer’s market to support nutrient dense food purchases while also simultaneously supporting local food growing farmers. All of these things were real-life examples shared that I captured in the visual notes.

Making small changes with big ripples can look like bridging siloed service departments, who now come together to do case analysis in an effort to find solutions to pattern issues they’re encountering, like limited bed space at their local mental health clinic. Ultimately there is no one way to do it, there are many ways.

What does economic development have to do with community health?

As I actively listen and learn, myself, I often hear repeat messaging and in this case it was about how the word health means different things to different people. It’s not the same definition.

We can all agree that our health starts in our homes, schools, neighborhoods and workplaces. Health is more than one persons’ job, it’s something we all have to do together. Pathways brings a network of people from across the state to do just that. Economic development builds a quality of life and when prospective business owners come to visit communities across Kansas, they can see a place for their employees to not only work, but live and play. Well paid jobs and access to healthcare have more in common than you might initially think. They are the two main components of economic stability. Investment in communities creates sustainable, healthy places where Kansas can exist in ways that improve the quality of their lives.

Hearing about the great work being done in Kansas makes my job even more fun. You know what is also fun? Drawing a parachute of money landing in Kansas to represent federal dollars coming in for rural health! Yeah! You can read more on the Rural Health Transformation in Kansas here and here.