Strategy + Planning: Take Care New York
The Challenge
In fall of 2015, New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) released Take Care New York 2020 (TCNY 2020), the City’s blueprint for helping everyone achieve a healthier life. TCNY 2020 outlines new targets for the City to achieve by the year 2020 for traditional health factors as well as social factors like how many people in a community graduated from high school or go to jail. Through a competitive review process, DOHMH partnered with CRE to undertake an intensive community engagement process to share information about TCNY 2020 with community members. CRE designed a process to disseminate data on key health indicators to the targeted neighborhoods, engage community members in a visioning discussion, and gather feedback on residents’ neighborhood priorities.
What We Did
CRE organized, designed, and facilitated a series of Community Consultations in dozens of neighborhoods across the five boroughs. These events took place from October 2015 to March 2016 in public libraries during the evening or weekends to ensure maximum participation. In collaboration with DOHMH, a team of CRE consultants created a structure for each event, conducted direct outreach to increase participation, and provided logistical support. CRE led diverse community members through prioritizing issues outlined in TCNY 2020 for their neighborhoods and facilitated conversations about sensitive topics such as racial health disparities.
Impact
Through the Community Consultations, over 1000 New Yorkers ranked the TCNY 2020 objectives according to what is most important for their community. These rankings informed the City’s work in mobilizing community members and partners to advocate for and implement interventions that will help advance health equity.