Mat-Su Health Foundation: Community Engagement Initiative

The Mat-Su Health Foundation’s (MSHF) Community Engagement Initiative is part of a broader effort to assess community health, prioritize health issues and identify strategies to address them. After completing a community health assessment (CHA) of the Borough, the MSHF engaged Agnew::Beck to communicate the findings from the health assessment to Borough communities in order to understand the stories behind the numbers and the priorities of residents and other stakeholder groups. Agnew::Beck and MSHF staff conducted 23 meetings with Mat-Su citizens, agencies, organizations, and businesses to review the data and to participate in direction-setting for the MSHF. The project team used an audience response system to conduct a detailed prioritization process to identify the top health-related issues and goals in Mat-Su. With the live voting results in front of them, meeting attendees were able to have productive discussions on strengths and strategies that addressed their particular list of concerns. Using the combined results from these meetings as well as results from the community health assessment, Agnew::Beck helped the MSHF develop a final report that will help direct the Foundation’s grant awards and other activities. The Mat-Su Health Priorities handout (pdf) provides a summary of the issues and goals in the Mat-Su.

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