Helpful Resources Russia Program Tools and Resources Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP) (external link) Open World Leadership Center (external link)

Through its Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP), AIHA helps civic, political, and healthcare leaders from Russia build their capacity to address healthcare challenges using the Healthy Communities model.

The CLDP is designed to build stronger communities that work to improve health through a broad range of citizen-based initiatives. The program brings together leaders of diverse backgrounds for a common purpose and provides them with the tools to translate their experience in the US into a lasting partnership that reaches beyond the core group and benefits their entire community. It also strengthens the US communities who host the delegates. The US hosts learn from their counterparts and discover more about themselves and their own communities by sharing their successes with others.

Sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center at the US Library of Congress, CLDP exchanges focus primarily on adopting the Healthy Communities approach to address health issues such as HIV/AIDS, the provision of social services, youth risk behaviors, and substance abuse. To date, 420 leaders from Russia have participated in these exchanges.

Russian delegates visit counterpart communities in the US where they see concrete examples of solutions to specific healthcare delivery challenges—such as delivery of care and treatment services for people living with HIV or AIDS and community-based support services for at-risk youth—in action. Each exchange begins with an orientation to the Healthy Communities model and CLDP objectives and concludes with meetings in Washington, DC, or in the US host community where delegates had the opportunity to meet with governmental representatives and healthcare leaders, share lessons learned, and develop action plans for implementing programs in their own cities and towns.

Russian participants in the CLDP have made dramatic progress in developing their own Healthy Communities programs. Russian municipalities have initiated activities such as fighting drug abuse and HIV/AIDS, preventing smoking, and encouraging physical activity and healthier lifestyle choices.

For example, the Chesma team, which participated in the program in 2002, held a health fair in the district village of Kalinovka in May 2003 that was attended by hundreds of townspeople who received free health screenings and consultations provided by district physicians. Attendees also participated in sporting contests and health promotion activities.

To improve the health status of young people, the team from Molchanovo Rayon in Tomsk Oblast opened a Community Health Center. The team from Kinel-Cherkassy in Samara Oblast introduced a health program for adolescents in rayon schools and initiated actions to apply for membership in the WHO Healthy Cities network.

Tools and Resources:

• Creating Healthy Communities Through Committed Leadership (CLDP workbook, in English and Russian)

Additional Reading:

• Stopping the Tobacco Industry's Influence on Our Children and Young Adults (AIHA Connections, May 2003)
• Healthy Cities Start from Healthy Communities: AIHA Partners Share Experience in Empowering Health Promotion and Social Safety (AIHA Connections, December 2003)
• Moving Beyond Traditional Structures: Russian CLDP Graduates Use Community Mobilization Techniques to Bring Health to Their Cities (AIHA Connections, June 2004)