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Consumer Engagement & Organizing
Central to the mission of Community Catalyst is the goal of building a strong consumer voice for health care in every community in the country. The key to being successful is to share expertise, build organizational capacity, and form pragmatic coalitions for change. Community Catalyst offers in-depth organizational development for organizations and networks of state consumer health advocacy organizations to help them increase their organizational effectiveness and move forward their mission of expanding access to health care. We help groups develop campaign strategies suited to their local circumstances, generate resources, and build strong, well-managed organizations.
Tools for community engagement:
- Free Care Monitoring Project
Though hospital free care is an essential part of the health care safety net, it often can be hard to find. Since 1999, Community Catalyst has helped advocacy organizations in a number of states train volunteers to find out what information hospitals give the public about the availability of free care. This provides advocates with a “how-to” manual and a set of tools to use in launching their own free care monitoring projects.
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Storybanking
Community Catalyst created this storybanking guide to help advocates reach out to people in their communituies and find compelling stories. And storybanking can be a first step to engaging community members in advocacy work. The guide provides tips, hints and examples to find and share stories.
- May 23, 2013 A Seat at the Table: Consumer Engagement Strategies Essential to the Success of State Dual Eligible Demonstration Projects This paper provides a blueprint for the structures needed to ensure consumers and their family members are at the decision-making tables in the federal demonstration projects to integrate care for people eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare.
- November 19, 2012 Avenues for Consumer Engagement to Shape Medicaid Managed Long-Term Services and Supports The development of Medicaid Managed long-term services and supports (LTSS) in any state creates openings for consumer engagement. To mitigate the risks and maximize the potential benefits of the program, consumer advocates must get involved when the program is first planned and stay involved as it unfolds.
- November 19, 2012 Executive Summary: Putting Consumers First: Promising Practices for Medicaid Managed Long-Term Services and Supports More states are adopting managed care for the long-term services and supports (LTSS) needed to help Medicaid beneficiaries live with chronic illnesses and disabilities. This guide includes LTSS 101, policy recommendations, promising practices, and tips for engagement to help shape Medicaid managed LTSS to better serve consumers.
- November 19, 2012 Putting Consumers First: Promising Practices for Medicaid Managed Long-Term Services and Supports More states are adopting managed care for the long-term services and supports (LTSS) needed to help Medicaid beneficiaries live with chronic illnesses and disabilities. This guide includes LTSS 101, policy recommendations, promising practices, and tips for engagement to help shape Medicaid managed LTSS to better serve consumers.
- August 30, 2012 All for One and One for All: Promising Practices for Consumer Health Advocacy Collaboration In working closely with state-based advocates that are building or maintaining consumer health coalitions, Community Catalyst identified some important lessons and promising practices for others who are developing their own collaborations.
- August 30, 2012 Executive Summary: All for One and One for All: Promising Practices for Consumer Health Advocacy Collaboration In working closely with state advocates, Community Catalyst identified important lessons and promising practices for others who are developing their own collaborations and found four common factors that influence the successful establishment and maintenance of statewide health advocacy networks of coalitions.
- November 03, 2010 Staying the Course: The Essential Role of Consumer Advocates in Reforming Health Care An overview of the projects and work to date of Consumer Voices for Coverage, a joint initiative of Community Catalyst and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
- May 21, 2010 Sign-on letter to HHS Secretary about consumer assistance recommendations To truly help Americans navigate the health care system, consumer assistance programs must be adequately funded, be independent of political bias, and be culturally competent for the community they serve.
- April 09, 2010 Legal Challenges to Health Care Reform are Unfounded This one-pager outlines the reasons the referendums, laws or state constitutional amendments to block national health care reform are without legal merit.
- March 19, 2010 Gains in the States: Consumer Advocacy and Federal-State Alliances Help Expand Health Coverage Despite a deep economic recession and the promise of national health care reform, states advanced access to quality affordable health care in 2009.
- January 01, 2007 Walk in My Shoes Brochure Brief summary of Walk In My Shoes program
- October 01, 2006 Consumer Health Advocacy: A View from 16 States This report looks at state health reform in 16 states addressing the following questions: What is actually happening in state capitals and communities across the nation as these trends play out and crucial health policy decisions are being made? Can health care consumers actively participate in health policymaking? What political, economic, and organizational factors are making consumer health advocacy successful in some states and extremely challenging in others?
- February 01, 2005 Community Health Leaders Manual and Curriculum A how-to manual for community activists to organize around health reform.
- February 01, 2004 The ABC's of Negotiation: An Advocate's Guide to Negotiating with Providers to Improve Access to Health Care Services This guide was written as an information resource to familiarize advocates with some of the foundational concepts of effective negotiation. The ultimate goal is to help advocates become more comfortable with the practice of negotiation so that it can be a useful skill when striving to improve health care access.
- October 01, 2003 Holding On: Fighting to Preserve Essential Services at a Community Hospital The goal of this manual is to help you organize your community when your local hospital is either going to discontinue individual services or units or close entirely. We use our experience in Massachusetts as a model.
- August 01, 2003 Strength in Numbers: A Guide to Building Community Coalitions This guide was written to assist anyone interested in building community coalitions. In this guide, readers will find helpful information on many relevant topics, such as how to establish a strong and stable coalition foundation, how to enhance the coalition by developing a broad and diverse membership, and how to increase the effectiveness and lifespan of the coalition.
- July 01, 2002 A Guide to Organizing Community Forums The following information has been compiled to provide individuals and consumer groups with sets of guiding questions to organize more effective community forums. The guiding questions deal with several general concerns that often arise when planning a forum. We are hopeful that this outline enables community forum organizers to anticipate many of these general concerns and, thus, address them efficiently.
- January 01, 2002 Addressing Oral Health Needs Community Catalyst and Health Care for All hope that this guide will strengthen existing dental health advocacy and foster new initiatives to improve dental health, especially for low income people, linguistic and cultural minorities, persons with disabilities, rural families, the elderly and other underserved communities.