OUR FOCUS

Community Assessment Initiative

State of Community Engagement

Creating authentic partnerships, conducting thoughtful and robust engagement, and co-design are core principles of meaningful patient, family, and caregiver participation in integrated health initiatives. As an Ontario Health Team, one of our goals is to bring an equitable, diverse and inclusive representation of community members to the table to work together in improving the quality of healthcare and the patient experience in our region.

As we plan our community engagement, we are starting by using the State of Community Engagement (SoCE) assessment initiative. This project is designed to help us develop an understanding of the existing community engagement structures and experiences amongst our health and social services partners at the outset. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that their people and perspectives become part of engagement process itself

The State of Community Engagement (SoCE) protocol was created jointly by the Impact fellows at four Ontario Health Teams and was made possible through the collaboration of our colleagues in the Burlington, Mississauga and KW4 (Kitchener Waterloo) OHTs.

As the lead of the protocol, we are piloting the tool across our OHT this summer.  We anticipate that SoCE will help our OHT and others understand:

  • existing community engagement channels
  • perceived barriers, opportunities and gaps for engagement implementation
  • preferred and recommended communication channels
  • existing patient, caregiver and community groups, councils, committees
  • interest in supporting community engagement facilitation

 We look forward to establishing relationships while opening this  important conversation across OHT partners, and working with you to engage with patients, families, caregivers, clients and providers across the region.

Participation in the SoCE pilot includes:

  1. participating in a series of activities and answering questions using our interactive digital platform
  2. sharing your perspectives regarding community engagement on an ongoing basis
  3. participating in a 1.5 hr mini focus group with no more than 5 partner representatives

If you are a health or social service provider whose organization carries out community engagement, and would like more information about this opportunity please contact:

Natalie Dimitra Montgomery, PhD

OHT Impact Fellow, Lanark Leeds Grenville

nmontgomery@llgoht.ca