Sharing a Model for Community Change

The Tenderloin Health Improvement Partnership (TLHIP) and the Saint Francis Foundation have been invited to participate a second time in a national initiative to provide capacity building and support for adapting and testing a community change model called the Model for Improvement. The initiative, called Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation (or SCALE as it is commonly referred to) is supported by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In the second phase of this project, we will take this model for community change, teach it to others, apply it to projects, and “scale up” what we learned from the first round (2015-2016).

The SCALE model has resulted in an unprecedented collaboration of communities around the country to learn and work together to improve lives in communities we serve, ultimately to achieve 100 million healthier lives by 2020. We are one of 18 locations around the country (and the first “class”) who will use the SCALE model for change in a community-based setting, and inform the model so others can use it around the country and around the world.

I am excited to utilize this SCALE grant in partnership with the Trust for Public Land, and the Tenderloin Community Benefit District to further our work on developing a Tenderloin Wellness Trail. The Trail will create a vibrant pathway that connects all Tenderloin parks to increase park access, safety, and healthy activity. We are using this model to engage and work with residents, CBOs, and city agencies in improving the built environment and creating program opportunities that support health and wellness at the same time that the city is redesigning and renovating Tenderloin parks.