Healthy New Orleans Phase Two

Phase II

During Phase II: Strategic Planning (April - December 1999), the objective was to develop a Community Health Improvement Plan using a non-linear consensus-based Strategic Planning Process. Community-based data collection, comprehensive needs assessment of health services, new community-based health care sites, renewed substance abuse funding were achievements by membership organizations of the Healthy New Orleans Partnership. And the development and initiation of Community Voices was one of the primary accomplishments for the Partnership in 1999.

A series of daylong workshops during May through December were held. These meetings involved over 222 stakeholders and accomplished:

1. A systems-based Visioning Process that provided the Partnership with a Practical Long Range Vision; as consensus on the issues and problems of the New Orleans Public Health System; the underlying contradictions that keep these problems in place; actions that would address the underlying contradictions; and Strategic Directions to realize our Vision.
2. The Development of a Conceptual Framework for the New Orleans Public Health System that described the Partnership's image of the system required to Implement their Vision.
3. A consensus on seventeen recommendations based on actions that realize the vision, deal with the contradictions, accomplish the strategic directions, and support the State Turning Point strategies. The recommendations relate to the focus on Community Wellness as its centerpiece and relate to the three systems of the Conceptual Framework: Public Systems, Personal Health, and Health Systems.

Visioning Process

The Visioning Process began with an analysis of ideas, practices, and approaches in the field of public health. The partners listed: Dying Trends - trends and practices that were disappearing, outdated, or no longer effective Established Practices - practices and trends that are presently standard operating procedures Emerging Trends - trends and practices that are picking up momentum and acceptance Boundary Ideas - creative ideas and new visions that are beginning to emerge

The group discussed underlying assumptions that created the Dying Trends and Established Practices and compared them to the assumptions that they presently hold. They are listed in Appendix A of the January 1, 2000 Community Public Health System Improvement Plan

A SHARED VISION was then developed by responding to the question of "What will Healthy New Orleans: The City that Cares have in place by 2050?"

This Document is continued.