Using the Tools of the Trade to Make an Impact

Turning Point is about change-making amid complex societal and technological change. Turning Point is about communities exploring ways to reshape institutions, systems, and practices to better achieve the mission of public health and to share what is learned. And Turning Point is about new ways of working and learning, and new opportunities.

Where do we start with change-making? Not at the beginning but at the end, where we envision the outcomes and the impact we would like to make. In thinking about impact, we need to identify what we would like to change, how we want to change it, and who will participate and be affected by the change. In short, we would be defining and framing the vision.

Making an impact with Turning Point is our challenge. And it requires an integration of all the tools of the trade. In the first issue of Transformations, Terri Wright described one tool, the policy agenda. The policy agenda assures that the vision of a transformed  system has an impact that is systemic and sustained.

Another tool, that of communications and social marketing, fuses expertise in marketing with knowledge of the dynamics of social change to shape public perceptions.  The key is to engage every member of the community in strategic relationships for  affecting change.

Evaluation as a tool provides a variety of approaches to gather data and stories systemically that inform decision-making. It is particularly useful for keeping a finger on the pulse of change as well as providing valuable data in support of change strategies.

Yet another tool, technology, supports the organization of community collaborations and the outreach capabilities of the community at large. Technology can assist in blending the analytical, technical, and communication capacity necessary to plan and build  systems that foster networking and outreach.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in partnership with the National Program Offices, are committed to assisting Turning Point partnerships in using policy, communications, evaluation and technology to make an impact.

Halcyon Liew is Communications Manager at the W.K. Kellogg  Foundation. This article is an overview of the series of articles from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that will be appearing in this space in  future issues.