MAPP Story Bank

MAPP Story Bank

The MAPP Story Bank is an interactive platform where you can both submit and view stories pertaining to how MAPP communities have implemented Community Health Improvement (CHI) processes. These stories provide you with an opportunity to see what MAPP processes look like in various community contexts from small rural communities to larger suburban/urban communities.. The intent of these stories is to share the experiences, successes, innovations, and lessons learned by communities who have used the MAPP framework for engaging in CHI. It is our hope that in collecting and sharing these community voices, we will provide MAPP communities with a platform to inspire and inform other MAPP communities interested in or engaged in the MAPP process.

See below for the topic areas we are looking to cover in the MAPP Story Bank.

MAPP Assessments
The MAPP assessments were designed to gather a broad range of qualitative and quantitative data from a variety of sources that, when combined, present a comprehensive story about a community’s health and their ability to collectively impact their health. MAPP is transitioning from the historical four MAPP assessments to three new assessments to offer a more streamlined approach to data collection. Each of the new assessments incorporates aspects of the historical assessments while focusing on root causes of inequities, incorporating community voice, and emphasizing the importance of partnerships.

Prioritization of Strategic Issues/Priority Areas for CHIP
After collecting data through the MAPP assessments, MAPP communities need to analyze and consolidate the data into a format that will allow them to begin to prioritize the pressing issues that came to light through the assessments. Prioritization is something that should be done with partners and community members giving voice to what they feel are emerging as the top concerns.

Community Power
Community power is a foundational principle of the revised MAPP framework. MAPP tasks communities with actively transferring and building the power of its community to ensure that those most impacted by inequities and actions addressed through CHI are those that guide the process, make key decisions, and help drive the action plan. Transferring ownership and decision making power to the community demonstrates trust and honors the inherent knowledge and value of lived experience, supporting the development of trusted relationships.

MAPP Community Partners
The MAPP process depends on bringing together cross-sectoral partners to plan and implement the MAPP process. The MAPP lead agency strengthens existing partnerships with organizations and agencies while also seeking out new partners who influence the health of the community. Partnership begins with recruitment, but the real challenge is often found in sustaining these partnerships throughout the MAPP process and acting collectively on the priority issues that the community chooses to focus on.

Health Inequities
Community health improvement, and the MAPP process, can serve as a powerful tool to explore and act on inequities as a community. Health equity, or “the state in which all people and populations have the opportunity to achieve optimal health,” is naturally aligned with the goal of improving population health which is defined by a shift from individual health behaviors and risk factors to examining the social and structural contexts that impact entire populations and lead to disparate distribution of outcomes.

Shared Goals and Measurements for CHIP
The MAPP process is meant to encourage coordinated action across organizations and agencies. In doing this, it can be challenging to develop goals and measures across partners, as each organization or agency has their own distinct priorities. It is often here that MAPP partnerships breakdown, and collective action fails to happen. The key is in developing shared goals and measures for a community wide strategy for improving the health of their communities.

Quality Improvement in the MAPP Process
Quality Improvement is important to MAPP as MAPP is a continuous process and it is critical to take the time to evaluate what worked well, what didn’t, and why. The goal is to improve the process of going through MAPP for the lead agency, partners, and community members.

MAPP Process in General
As communities reflect on their MAPP process, they often realize lessons learned, things that they would do differently, highlights that impacted their community positively, and benefits to the partner organizations and agencies. These types of stories are particularly helpful for other MAPP communities to hear.