ABOUT

Collaborative Cottage Grove’s Community-Centered Health program is committed to the transformation of health, equitable community development, and inclusion of cultural diversity. The partners are leaders in changing housing systems to align health and housing. They are not only mapping asthma hospital visits and housing condition data to identify communities in need of support, but they are also developing an electronic referral system to link families with asthma education and housing assessments, and developing funding for remediation and rehabilitation. Cottage Grove aims to foster healthy, resident-led communities by integrating community empowerment with environmental changes and high-quality, onsite, primary and behavioral health care. These efforts will ultimately create a positive and measurable impact on hospital emergency visits and health disparities in the community.

 

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

Collaborative Cottage Grove partners are leaders in changing housing systems to align health and housing. They are not only mapping asthma hospital visits and housing condition data to identify communities in need of support, but they are also developing an electronic referral system to link families with asthma education and housing assessments, and developing funding for remediation and rehabilitation.

Upstream

Substandard housing, food deserts, unsafe walkways and parks, poverty, and long-term disinvestment greatly impact the health of the community, especially asthma and diabetes. Cottage Grove’s upstream strategies include: implementing healthy homes assessments and remediation of health risks; developing community gardens and fresh food marketplaces; and increasing opportunities for safe physical activity.

Integrated

All of the strategies and activities of community residents and partners are integrated through the work of the Community-Centered Health coordinator. Cottage Grove weaves together neighborhood engagement, health system changes, housing investment, city departments, university internships and research, and partner expertise to further the shared vision of a healthy Cottage Grove community.

Local

Community residents are key decision-makers. Already, approximately 15% of all neighbors have engaged in the planning process. This approach engages community residents in selecting the specific activities in each of these arenas so that programs are not imposed by outside institutions. As neighbors work together, the stronger social cohesion has a powerful influence on the health of the community.

Data-Driven

Shared data is a core tool in Cottage Grove. The Data Team targets efforts, measures change, and adjusts activities in response to data collected. Partners will collect and share a wide variety of data, including: asthma hospitalizations and diabetes and hypertension hospital data, as well as support implementation of a shared Electronic Referral Network.

PARTNERS