At a recent meeting I attended there was much discussion on healthy community initiatives. Many of the attendees had been directly involved in local programs with the goal of improving the health of the citizens. The programs discussed included broad based initiatives that resulted in walking paths being built, menus at local restaurants being changed to healthier choices, and changes at the schools to improve food choices and increase physical activity. The discussion turned to the problem of sustaining community initiatives. Programs are usually launched with great energy and initial involvement. What makes one program thrive and another lose momentum and die?
Some of these answers can be found in The Art of Transformation by Newt Gingrich and Nancy Desmond. Applying the 21st Century Implementation Model [pp. 131- 133] we find that the community initiatives can be seen more as a migration to a healthier future than as a leap or organized march. Key to this migration is creating a sense of urgency, communicating the vision of a better future, and accelerating the citizen's awareness of, support for, and adoption of specific solutions that move toward that healthier future. Also needed is a growing number of key allies and leaders committed to the plan at a level beyond just moving in the same direction. This is the group that will provide the leadership for the community initiative as it grows. This group must have a much greater level of cohesiveness, integration, networking, and formal structure than the larger, more loosely connected movement.
To implement the plan, there must be an organization or an alliance dedicated to it. Continuous change is required. The structures must be flexible and decentralized. Metrics must be centralized, implementation must be decentralized.
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