The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), together with NACCHO's members and partners, developed a strategic planning approach to improve community health that incorporates health planning and community involvement concepts and recognizes that local public health is conducted on a systemwide basis. The Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) approach is a step-by-step process that is driven by four assessments for community-based strategic planning. MAPP works to improve the way the local public health system conducts community health planning and programming.
NACCHO and its partners developed the MAPP Web-based tool and companion technical assistance (TA) documents as the main tools for implementing the MAPP process. NACCHO has also provided trainings and one-on-one TA to help users navigate the process and learn to customize it to the needs of their community. Other hardbound tools include the Field Guide, a 24-page overview of the process; the MAPP Brochure; the MAPP Video; and most recently the MAPP Users Handbook, a portable MAPP manual with step-by-step guidance and practical tips.
These tools have increased community engagement and enhanced local capacity to tackle public health and other community concerns through the development of newly formed relationships and processes. In addition, communities expressed the value of planning health programs based on the comprehensive data collected through MAPP's four assessments. Nationally, MAPP has been accepted and dispersed throughout the country through well-attended trainings, statewide MAPP mandates, and grant language in bioterrorism funding guidelines. Nevertheless, MAPP is not an effortless process. It requires careful preparation and planning, strong facilitation and partnership building skills, and resources.
Since 2001, the experiences of nine demonstration sites have informed NACCHO on how to support other users in implementing MAPP. NACCHO documented the progress of these sites and their lessons learned in case studies that are available on the NACCHO Web site: http://www.naccho.org. As a result, in 2004, NACCHO began to focus more of its energies on providing guidance, TA, and resources to current and new MAPP users.
Given that TA is "the provision, on a temporary basis, of qualified outside personnel to help with tasks for which local people with the necessary skills are not available in sufficient numbers,"1 NACCHO's TA goal is to transfer knowledge and skills in the implementation of MAPP to the extent that direct assistance from NACCHO becomes unnecessary.
New Avenues of Support
Up to this point, evaluation findings and MAPP Work Group and Demonstration Sites expertise indicates that although existing TA resources are valuable, they do not yet provide the scope of assistance that would bolster a self-driven learning community of MAPP users. NACCHO strives to create a network of users who share experiences and expertise and pass on knowledge to new MAPP users. Creating such a learning community will be a key component to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the MAPP program at the local level.
To develop this learning community, a series of new tools and resources have been developed to provide a wider breath of assistance to new users.
* MAPP Marketing Tip Sheets
* Peer Assistance Network
* TA Webcast Series
* Case Studies
MAPP Marketing Tip Sheets
The MAPP process requires support and participation from a variety of community stakeholders, including the staff and leadership of the local public health agency (LPHA), community residents, and elected officials. MAPP Marketing Tip Sheets are being developed as a set of three guidance documents that provide key messages that resonate with each stakeholder group. The tip sheets will also include decision points a MAPP community may face in involving relevant stakeholder in their process and practical tips on how to communicate MAPP progress to each audience.
The Peer Assistance Network
The purpose of the MAPP Peer Assistance Network (PAN) is to provide LPHAs and other organizations with TA and resources from experienced MAPP users. By serving as peer advisors, MAPP mentors enhance the networking and learning experience among MAPP users. The PAN was designed to give new users the opportunity to learn from experienced MAPP mentors. These mentors can, in turn, benchmark their own practices against those of their peers. Thus, both new and experienced users are able to adopt effective approaches that fit their agencies' needs.
MAPP mentors are listed on the MAPP program Web site with highlights of their activities. NACCHO staff match MAPP users with mentor(s) on the basis of areas of expertise and geographic location. All questions and answers are logged and used for updating the Frequently Asked Questions factsheet.
TA Webcasts
The TA Webcast Series was developed to provide peer-based assistance on issues facing LPHAs who are interested in or currently implementing the MAPP tool. Guest speakers from LPHAs discuss their experiences and share information on the topics of interest and concern identified by participants. Each Webcast consists of an introduction, followed by three guest speakers with hands-on experience doing MAPP, and concludes with a 30- to 45-minute question-and-answer period. The webcast format allows participants to view presentation materials and post questions at any time throughout the presentations. The first TA webcast was held in February 2005 and focused on developing and sustaining partnerships, marketing MAPP to partners, and organizing for success. Webcast topics are determined by requests from MAPP users. Information on upcoming webcast can be found on the NACCHO Web site.
Case Studies
The MAPP Case Studies are culmination of the experiences of the nine MAPP Demonstration sites as they approached the end of the first iteration of the process in their communities. The case studies seek to present "how to" accounts of the sites' processes and document the lessons they learned from developing a strategic plan using MAPP. This compendium highlights particular successes and challenges the sites faced in each phase and gleans information about the necessary foundations for a successful MAPP process. Discussion of the sites concludes with an overview of the initial outcomes that have resulted form working through this process and collaborating with the community.
All of these resources can be accessed at the MAPP Web site: http://www.naccho.org/topics/infrastructure/MAPP.cfm.
NACCHO strives to continue enriching strategic public health planning at the local level through an emphasis on community participation. MAPP is a robust process for applying the theory of community-based participatory research to public health practice as well as a dynamic tool that provides practical guidance and information on preparing for and implementing the process. It includes the National Performance Standards as a one of the four assessments that drive the process, as well as connects with the lessons from Dialogue-or skillful conversation-to develop meaningful and lasting partnerships. Additional TA aims to buoy the efforts of a single MAPP community by offering national support and the value-added of peer agencies familiar with the process, its challenges, and its ultimate benefits. As public health practice moves forward, the MAPP process offers LPHAs a coordinated approach to strategic planning and the development of an effective local public health system.
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