AIHA designed its Healthy Communities Program to mobilize key stakeholders at the local level. They develop a systematic process that sets health priorities based on community needs to achieve lasting, sustainable change. The partnership methodology uses a peer-to-peer consultation/technical assistance model that combines workshops and professional exchanges with community-based healthcare organizations in the United States. The workshops emphasize the process of change and building skills in community organization, community development, and community health assessment and planning.

The ultimate goal of the Healthy Communities Program is the creation of a well-trained cadre of community leaders who are empowered to develop solutions to key health-related problems that they have identified within their own community.

US partners represent both large healthcare systems and community-based organizations. Any sector of the community can become a lead organization for a Healthy Communities project. However, it must have the ability to mobilize all sectors of the community to examine the issues that impact the health of the public at large. The project's time commitment is 18 months.

AIHA's planning methodology follows the strategies designed by the Voluntary Hospital Association (VHA), along with a combination of other planning models developed in the United States and Europe.

The planning process includes both activities coordinated by AIHA and ones that focus on partner-initiated work. In addition, while following the six basic planning phases of the project, the US partners may augment each phase with other planning tools that they have at their disposal. For example, one US partner—Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri—uses the Community Health Assessment Resource Team (CHART) planning strategies available through a series of manuals developed by the Missouri Health Department and the Missouri Hospital Association.

The following six phases outline the process that AIHA's Healthy Communities partnerships have followed in building community support to identify problems and solutions at the local level:

Phase 1: Mobilizing for Change
Phase 2: Partnership Building, Planning and Tailoring the Process
Phase 3: Community Health Assessment Activities
Phase 4: Establishing Health and/or Program Priorities
Phase 5: Development and Implementation of Community Intervention Strategy
Phase 6: Monitoring and Evaluation

Click the icon for a phase-by-phase journey through the AIHA healthy communities planning process.