Improving Social Determinants of Health—Getting Further Faster: Training, Technical Assistance, and Community of Practice

Mathematica’s training and technical assistance coordination center and community of practice offered robust capacity-building activities for community coalitions and partnerships through culturally responsive practices with a racial and health equity lens.

Mathematica applied a range of evidence-informed and innovative strategies that (a) substantively built the sustainability of community multisector coalitions and partnerships engaged in SDOH work, and (b) assessed the effectiveness of TA modalities and content in supporting communities engaged in this work. Peer learning opportunities covered a range of topics including community engagement, health equity, sustainability action planning, policy development, quality improvement, evaluation, data use and management, and strategic communications. By design, TA offerings incorporated adult learning principles and included:

• Interactive virtual webinars and workshops that centered peer learning 
• Individualized one-to-one coaching and mentoring
• Written resources and tools, including customizable, SDOH-specific tools for sustainability planning and policy development
• Asynchronous learning modules
• Blog series and video hub
• In-person workshops

Community coalition participants valued the TA and noted:

“The templates for policy and sustainability provided an organized approach to take with the coalition for keeping health equity at the center.”

“Detailed one-on-one support from Mathematica was extremely helpful. The suggestions provided helped us with planning for sustainability and policy activities moving forward.”

Mathematica partnered with NACCHO, ASTHO, and the CDC to disseminate SDOH-GFF resources and TA findings to support other communities in developing and implementing multisector strategies to address SDOH. Our women-owned small business partner, Health+ Studio, created a suite of videos that highlight the work of coalitions across the country.

For more information and to access the resource library, video hub, and blog series, go to www.gettingfurtherfaster.org.